ENTERING Lahore cantonment is quite a hassle these days. There are long queues of motorised vehicles, except for the e-tag lane. I applied for an e-tag for my car in the first week of June and it was supposed to be delivered in four weeks time with a call through SMS on cellphones.

Nearly eight weeks have since passed and there is no message to that effect. On calling the given phone number I was told that there were nearly 35,000 applicants, and the processing was taking longer than expected. I was advised to come in person to the station headquarters and check if my name was cleared by the security agencies.

This advice belies the advertisements that say ‘Save your precious time, get an e-tag for your vehicle’. The e-tag will be effective for 365 days from the date of issue. I am afraid many more days will pass before I get one.

The cost of the form is Rs20 while the e-tag charges are Rs1,500 for 365 days, making the total revenue well over a whopping Rs53,000,000.

Dr Shahid Qayyum
Lahore

Published in Dawn, August 1st, 2014