NHAI Announces “MargMitra” Virtual Assistant, Digital FASTag Local Pass on RajmargYatra App

The National Highways Authority of India, under the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, has announced two new features for the Rajmargyatra mobile app, aimed at making long-distance travel quicker and more convenient, and improving facilities for those who live within 20km of a toll plaza.

Available on both Android and iOS, NHAI has been promoting use of the Rajmargyatra app. Interestingly, the agency has also revealed that over 80 lakh FASTag annual passes have been sold through the app so far.

MargMitra Virtual Assistant

The MargMitra Help Centre is described as an “intelligent digital assistance platform”, designed as a familiar conversational chatbot. It is meant to let users quickly find information, get help, and register complaints related to national highways. Users can find it within the Rajmargyatra app, and then type or use voice input in any of the several supported Indian languages: Assamese, Awadhi, Bengali, Bhojpuri, Bodo, Dogri, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Khasi, Kokborok, Konkani, Maithili, Malayalam, Manipuri, Marathi, Marwari, Mizo, Nepali, Odia, Punjabi, Santali, Sanskrit, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu, Tulu, and Urdu.

The app will then respond with relevant information or show instructions to help users get to the service they need. Users can ask about FASTag recharges and blacklist status, pending e-notices and challans, the KYC process, refund status, annual and local pass services, and more. Safety concerns such as stalled cars and encroachments can also be reported.

Users can lodge complaints directly through the MargMitra Help Centre, and they will be routed to the relevant department automatically. The app will also show the status of each ticket raised in real time, and users will be able to file an appeal if the outcome is unsatisfactory.

Digital FASTag Local Pass

The NHAI’s local pass allows road users who live within 20km of a toll plaza to pass through it at concessional rates, and is specific to that single toll plaza. Rather than visiting the plaza physically or using the NHAI’s online portal, users can now buy and manage a local pass through the Rajmargyatra app. Buyers will also not have to submit physical documents anymore, thanks to integration with the national VAHAN vehicle database, geographic information systems, and the Government of India’s Digilocker secure document storage platform.

At the time of its launch, this feature has been introduced only at the Mundka – Bakkarwala Toll Plaza on Urban Extension Road-II (UER-II) in Delhi. Other toll plazas across the country will be enrolled over the next several months. NHAI says the digital enrollment process will take only a few minutes.