Toll rates on national highways with bridges tunnels cut by up to 50 pc

Toll rates on national highways with bridges tunnels cut by up to 50 pc

The government has reduced toll rates by up to 50 per cent for sections of National Highways that have tunnels, bridges, flyovers elevated stretches. The move is set to lower travelling cost for motorists.

Currently, user charges at toll fee plazas are collected as per NH Fee Rules, 2008. The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has made amendment to 2008 rules and notified a new method or formula for calculating toll charges.

‘The rate of fee for use of a section of national highway comprising of structure or structures shall be calculated by adding ten times the length of structure or structures to the length of the section of national highway excluding the length of structure or structures, or five times the total length of section of national highway, whichever is lesser,’ said the notification dated July 2, 2025.

'Structure' here means an independent bridge, tunnel or flyover or elevated highway.

The ministry gave examples for easier understanding.

In one of the examples, it said that if a section of a national highway has a total length of 40 kilometers, comprising of structure alone, the minimum length shall be computed: '10 x 40 (ten times length of structure) = 400 kilometers or five times the total length of section of a national highway = 5 x 40 = 200 kilometers'.

‘User fee shall be calculated on the lesser length i.e. for 200 kilometers’ and not 400 kilometers. In this case the user charge is only on half (50 per cent) of the road length.

According the existing rules, users pay ten times the regular toll for every kilometre of structure on national highways.

A senior official of National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) said the existing toll calculation method was meant to offset higher construction cost associated with such infrastructure.