Toll Tax Rules: The Modi government has introduced a significant and reassuring change for the countless drivers and transporters who frequently travel on national highways. If your journey includes long bridges, tunnels, flyovers, or elevated structures, you will now pay considerably less in toll taxes than before.
The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has made substantial updates to the National Highway Fee Rules. As part of this, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has issued clear directives to all regional offices to reassess tolls according to the new rates and initiate the revision process without delay.
Here’s the new toll calculation method: Under the updated National Highway Fee Rules, the government has established two distinct formulas for setting toll rates. NHAI has been explicitly instructed to charge the public using the formula that results in the lowest overall cost. The first formula involves multiplying the length of any special structure, like a bridge or tunnel, by 10 and then adding the length of the remaining standard portion of the highway. The second formula simply multiplies the total length of the entire highway section—both the bridge and the regular road—by 5. Additionally, bridges that are 60 meters or shorter will not require further calculations. The main goal of this system is to lessen the toll financial burden on drivers and the public while ensuring transparent fee determination.
Why were the old tolls so high?
Generally, constructing and maintaining a bridge, tunnel, or elevated road on a highway is much more costly than a standard road. This is why, under previous regulations, tolls were calculated at 10 times the actual length of such structures. For instance, if a highway featured a 5-kilometer tunnel or elevated road, it was treated as equivalent to a 50-kilometer regular road for toll collection purposes. This rule posed a significant financial strain on commuters, especially on expressways and major urban expressways where bridges can extend for several kilometers.
Understand savings like this with an example
To understand the impact of the revised rules, it can be seen in two different ways. In the first case, if a 40-kilometer highway has 30 kilometers of elevated road and 10 kilometers of normal road, then under the old method (30 × 10 + 10), the total length would be 310 kilometers, which would be a hefty toll. However, under the new 5-fold rule, the total length (40 × 5) becomes only 200 kilometers, which means that the public will have to pay tolls for only 200 kilometers instead of 310 kilometers.
In the second case, where there is less elevated section, such as a 40-kilometer highway with 10 kilometers of bridge and 30 kilometers of regular road, the first formula yields a distance of 130 kilometers (10 × 10 + 30), and the second formula yields a distance of 200 kilometers. Since the rule requires choosing the least expensive formula, drivers will only be charged tolls for 130 kilometers. Thus, in both cases, choosing the shorter distance provides direct financial relief to drivers. Comparing these two formulas, the total distance is reduced by approximately 40 percent, resulting in a significant reduction of up to 40% in toll rates.