Govt reduces toll rate up to 50 percent for the elevated portion of highways
By Arun Kumar Das
New Delhi, July 4 (BVI): In a decision that will benefit the commercial vehicle owners, the government has reduced the toll rate up to 50 percent for the structures section- bridge, tunnel or flyover or elevated highway- of the National Highways.
Earlier, the toll for the structures portion of the National Highway was charged at the rate of 10 times of the normal toll. Now, In a revised notification released on Tuesday, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) has issued a new formula for the calculation of the user fee for a section of National Highway composed of structures.
It said that such a user fee will be calculated by adding ten times the length of structure to the net road length or five times the total length of the section of National Highway, whichever is lesser. The new formula will bring relief to the road users for those stretches of highways where structures account for more than 50 percent of the length.
For instance, if a section of national highway has a total length of 40 kilometers, with 30 km structure and 10 km net road, then the minimum length will be computed as 10 x 30 + 10 = 310 km or five times the total length of the section of national highway i.e. 5 x 40 = 200 km.
So, the user fee shall be calculated on the lesser length i.e. for 200 kilometers. With this formula, a one-way car trip will cost Rs. 292 at the rate of Rs. 1.46 per km as per National Highways Fee (Determination of Rates and Collection) Rules, 2008.
The government charge higher user fee for the structures section of the National Highways to recover the cost incurred in construction of tunnels, bridges or elevated stretch on the highway.
The Ministry said that for existing public funded toll plaza, the new rule will be effective from the date of next scheduled user fee revision. For the new toll plaza, it will apply since the commencement of the date of operation. For concessionaire operated fee plazas, it will become effective upon expiry of concession agreements.
Officials said that the new rule will mostly benefit the commercial vehicle as they are charged 4-5 times to the private vehicles. Also, now private vehicle owners have one more option to buy an annual pass of Rs. 3000 to reduce the burden of high toll.
“For example, in the Delhi-Dehradun expressway, the elevated structure on Delhi side is 18 km and on the Dehradun side, it is passing through a 15km wildlife elevated corridor. The commercial vehicles will have to pay 50 percent less toll for the structure section. Similarly, the toll on other key elevated structures such as Nashik Phata-Khed, Danapur-Bihta will be reduced. The 28.5 km Dwarka Expressway has 21 km of structures. Thus, the new notification will be a big relief for commuters on this expressway,” said the official.
