
Govt to roll out Rs 3,000 FASTag annual pass
New Delhi: In a bid to ease toll payments on National Highways, the government will from August 15 bring a Rs 3,000 FASTag-based annual pass that would allow up to 200 trips on the highways in one year on a single charge.
The annual pass will be applicable only for non-commercial private vehicles such as cars, jeeps, and vans. It will allow seamless travel across National Highways without the need for repeated recharging of FASTag cards or toll payments, Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari said, announcing the move through a post on X.

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Indian Express
28 minutes ago
- Indian Express
Amazon Prime Video now shows ads in between TV shows and movies: Here's how to remove them
In a rather unsurprising turn of events, Amazon Prime Video has announced that it will start showing advertisements in between TV shows and movies. The company's new move aims to generate more revenue for the platform while negatively impacting the user experience. On its support page, Amazon says that when users are watching TV shows and movies on Prime Video, they will see 'limited advertisements that run before and during playback.'And while these advertisements are unskippable, Amazon says you can bypass them by signing up for the Prime Video Ad plan, which is currently available as both a monthly and yearly subscription in India. However, despite paying to remove ads in shows and movies, Amazon says it will continue to show advertisements in 'free ad-supported programming, live TV, and sports events' and continue to show promotional trailers that run before movies or TV shows, which cannot be skipped even if you are subscribed to Prime Video Ad Free. This type of content is labelled as 'watch with ads' or 'with ads' on the show's detail page. If you are tired of seeing advertisements when binge-watching your favourite show or movie, here's how to subscribe to the Prime Video Ad Free plan and remove some ads. Visit the Prime Video website from your preferred browser and go to 'Your Account'. Now, select 'Go Ad free' and press the 'Start Subscription' button. If you are on the mobile app, Amazon will show a small banner at the bottom with a 'Go ad free' button. Tap on it, and Amazon will send you an email with a 'Continue signing up' button. Clicking on this will open a new web page where you can pay Rs 129 or Rs 699 to get the monthly and yearly ad-free subscription. Once the subscription starts, Amazon says profiles linked to the account will no longer see advertisements when streaming movies and TV shows on the platform. Also, Prime Video Mobile Edition and Prime Lite members will have to upgrade their account to Amazon Prime before they can subscribe to the ad-free plan. Keep in mind that these ad free plans are in addition to your existing Prime membership, which are priced at Rs 299 per month or Rs 1,499 per year.


Time of India
30 minutes ago
- Time of India
Varanasi bid goodbye to iconic Lanka eateries: 115-year-old Chachi Ki Kachori and Pahalwan Lassi shops demolished
VARANASI: The famous joints of three Banarasi delicacies -- lassi, kachori and paan -- have lost their iconic address forever. Pahalwan Lassi, Chachi Ki Kachori and Mahendra's Banarasi Paan Shop on Lanka trisection -- the go to places for tourists and natives alike for decades, were removed during a road-widening drive late Tuesday evening. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now A team of PWD razed 35 shops in the area for the conversion of Vijaya crossing-Lanka-Bhikharipur-Lahartara Road into a four-lane road. The PWD officials told TOI that maximum work on this Rs 215-crore project was complete and work only in a few patches in Lanka was pending. According to PWD officials, the shops were situated on land owned by the Ramlila Samiti headed by Sankat Mochan Temple's Mahant Prof Vishwamabhar Nath Mishra. The Samiti had been paid the compensation for the land and all the shops had been served notices a month ago to vacate the place. Hence, no protest was staged, as the agency completed its work by Wednesday early morning. The only exception was an outburst of emotions by Prabhu, the owner of Pahalwan Lassi, reaching his shop, hands folded, but he was also taken away from the spot by his brothers. The images of debris and dusty Lanka Trisection neighbourhood that went viral on Wednesday morning, however, made people across the globe nostalgic. Many social media users started sharing the old pictures of these shops. Former general secretary of Banaras Hindu University Students Union, Bhupendra Pratap Singh Rintu, shared memories of the 115-year-old Chachi ki Kachori shop, saying, "Student union leaders of the past, like Jammu and Kashmir's Lt Governor Manoj Sinha and former MP Bharat Singh, used to pester the woman vendor, addressing her as 'Chachi' and how she used to lace her serving of kachori-jalebi with the choicest expletives. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now We took her abusive language as a blessing because actually she loved us and after her death, her sons and grandsons have been running the shop." Former BHU student, Ajay Singh, spoke about celebrities and politicians who visited Pahalwan's shop for lassi topped with rabri. The shop's owner, Brijesh Yadav, said nobody forced them to quit and the shop was likely to be reopened near Mahendru hostel building on Lanka-Sankat Mochan temple road. Chachi's son Kailash has already set up shop in Kabir Nagar and plans a kiosk opposite his old shop. Mahendra's famous paan shop is being run by his grandson Ravi Mishra from his house in Prafull Nagar. Mishra said, "District administration sought cooperation for road expansion to ease increasing traffic load and we only wanted to ensure the Ramlila tradition was not affected." Meanwhile, portions of Rohania police station and other buildings were razed by PWD on Wednesday to facilitate completion of Mohansarai-Cantt 6-lane road project.


Time of India
30 minutes ago
- Time of India
Southeast Asia Budget Airlines: Southeast Asia's Budget Airlines Push for Growth Amidst Rising Costs and Competition, ET TravelWorld
Advt Advt Join the community of 2M+ industry professionals. Subscribe to Newsletter to get latest insights & analysis in your inbox. All about ETTravelWorld industry right on your smartphone! Download the ETTravelWorld App and get the Realtime updates and Save your favourite articles. Southeast Asia's biggest budget airlines are pursuing a bruising capacity expansion race despite rising cost pressures that are squeezing profitability and led Qantas Airways to shut down Singapore-based offshoot Jetstar carriers have proliferated in Asia in the past two decades as disposable incomes rise, supported by robust travel demand from Chinese for air travel in Asia is expected to grow faster than other regions in the next few decades and carriers like Vietnam's VietJet Aviation and Malaysia-headquartered AirAsia are to buy more planes to add to their already large orderbooks as they seek to gain market margins are thinner than in other regions. The International Air Transport Association (IATA), an airline industry body, this year expects Asia-Pacific airlines to make a net profit margin of 1.9 per cent, compared with a global average of 3.7 per across Asia have largely restored capacity since the pandemic, which has intensified competition, especially for price-sensitive budget travellers, and pulled airfares down from recent high airfares in Asia dropped 12 per cent in 2024 from 2023, ForwardKeys data shows. AirAsia, the region's largest budget carrier, reported a 9 per cent decline in average airfares in the first quarter as it added capacity and passed savings from lower fuel prices onto its to challenges for airlines, costs such as labour and airport charges are also rising, while a shortage of new planes is driving up leasing and maintenance shifting landscape prompted Australia's Qantas to announce last week that its loss-making low-cost intra-Asia subsidiary Jetstar Asia would shut down by the end of July after two decades of Asia said it had seen "really high cost increases" at its Singapore base, including double-digit rises in fuel, airport fees, ground handling and security charges."It is a very thin buffer, and with margins this low, any cost increase can impact an airline's viability," said IATA Asia-Pacific Vice President Sheldon Hee, adding that operating costs were escalating in the data firm OAG in a February white paper said Asia-Pacific was the world's most competitive aviation market, with airfares driven down by rapid capacity expansion "perhaps to a point where profits are compromised"."Balancing supply to demand and costs to revenue have never been more critical," the report said of the region's Asia has an unusually high concentration of international budget flights. Around two-thirds of international seats within Southeast Asia so far this year were on budget carriers, compared to about one-third of international seats globally, CAPA Centre for Aviation data took the option to move Jetstar Asia's aircraft to more cost-efficient operations in Australia and New Zealand rather than continue to lose money, analysts operators in Southeast Asia were struggling for profits amid fierce competition even before the pandemic and now there is the added factor of higher costs, said Asia-based independent aviation analyst Brendan carriers offer bargain fares by driving operating costs as low as possible. Large fleets of one aircraft type drive efficiencies of Asia was much smaller than local rivals, with only 13 aircraft. As of March 31, Singapore Airlines' budget offshoot Scoot had 53 planes, AirAsia had 225 and VietJet had 117, including its Thai arm. Low-cost Philippine carrier Cebu Pacific had four are adding more planes to their fleets this year and further into the on Tuesday signed a provisional deal to buy up to another 150 single-aisle Airbus planes at the Paris Airshow, in a move it said was just the beginning as the airline pursues ambitious deal comes weeks after it ordered 20 A330neo wide-body planes, alongside an outstanding order for 200 Boeing 737 MAX which has an existing orderbook of at least 350 planes, is also in talks to buy 50 to 70 long-range single-aisle jetliners, and 100 regional jets that could allow it to expand to more destinations, its CEO Tony Fernandes said on Wednesday."At the end of the day, it is go big or go home," said Subhas Menon, director general of the Association of Asia Pacific Airlines.