NEW DELHI: FASTag-based parking payment at the Terminal-3 arrival at IGI airport was temporarily suspended Wednesday, after it was found that the parking operator was using the smart tag to regulate entry of vehicles rather than using it only for collecting parking fees.TOI has learnt that IHMCL, under NHAI, Wednesday wrote to the acquirer bank concerned of the parking facility at T3 terminal to ensure discontinuation of “any other use” of the smart tag beyond payment of parking fee. It had said non-compliance would invite action, including de-boarding of the bank concerned from electronic toll collection (ETC) parking facility.The issue was flagged by former Niti Aayog vice-chairperson Rajiv Kumar. In a post on X on Tuesday, Kumar said, “All of a sudden a new process has been introduced by @DelhiAirportGMR that it will not allow cars with annual @fastagofficial pass to enter the departure lanes of Terminal 3. Instead all cars are expected to have some balance in their main account. Else they are required to go to the parking. No prior notice. No explanation.

Completely arbitrary. Maximising passenger harassment. @NHAI_Official and @AAI_Official to please note and rectify.”In response, IHMCL said FASTag is a payment instrument for parking facilities at airports and can’t be used as a means of enforcing entry restrictions. “The matter has been taken cognisance of and the bank concerned has been directed to discontinue any such restrictions,” it replied.People aware of the issue said that non-FASTag vehicles are manually forced towards the multi-level parking, which is causing inconvenience to users. It’s also learnt that vehicles that head towards generally get stuck and breach the free time period and have to invariably pay the parking fee.