Toll Fees In Public-Funded NH Projects To Be Reduced By 40%: Union Minister Nitin Gadkari

Toll Plaza Rates: For those National Highway sections, bridges, tunnels, or bypasses, as applicable, the user charge realised for publicly funded projects would be decreased to 40%.

Member of Parliament (MP) P Wilson on Friday stated that Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari has acceded to his request with a 40% toll price reduction in projects with public funding.

"According to section 6(b) of the NH Fee Rules, the user fee realised for publicly funded projects would be reduced to 40% of the user fee for those National Highway sections, bridges, tunnels, or bypasses, as applicable. This fee would be adjusted annually in accordance with the NH Fee Rules," Union Minister Gadkari wrote the parliamentarian in a letter.

He tweeted that he had earlier asked the minister on the floor of the Parliament to abolish all toll plazas on national highways around the nation and replace them with a one-time registration charge. He posted the response letter and thanked Gadkari.

Thanking the union minister he wrote, "This decision which would really help ease the burden on the road users. However, I still request the Hon. Minister to abolish Toll completely soon and collect a one-time fee at the time of Registration," he stated in another tweet. 

The Union Minister in response letter wrote, "I am aware that there are some toll plazas which are located within less than 60Kms distance. We have decided to solve this problem by using advance technology solutions. This technology will enable the authority to charge commuters on a pro-rata basis; based on the distance travelled."

"With this new toll management system; the distance between toll plazas will be redundant. We recently conducted a Hackathon to get the best available tech-driven solutions in this context. Already, a pilot project, based on Automatic Number Plate Reading (ANPR), is under execution," according to the letter by Gadkari. 

"We will deploy this solution after the pilot study is analyzed and validated which will resolve the issue of distance between toll gates," the letter stated. 

He informed the parliamentarian that the NH Fee Rule 2008 as amended and the NH Fee Rule 1997 as per the relevant user fee notifications govern the collection of user fees at the fee plaza.