Travelling on national highways to cost more from now, toll charges hiked by 5%

Motorists using national highways and expressways will have to shell out more money from Monday as the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has decided to hike toll charges across India by an average of five per cent in a bid to boost revenue. This means, that if you are taking a road trip, the highway toll charges you pay will be higher than what you paid during your last trip.

The five per cent hike in national highway toll charges means, that if you paid ₹1,000 as toll fees during your last trip, taking the same route to the same destination will cost you ₹1,050 from June 3, after the charges revision.

PTI has reported that this annual revision of the national highway user fee was earlier to come into effect on April 1 this year. However, the toll charge hike was deferred by the NHAI due to the Lok Sabha elections. Now, with the seven-phase election over, NHAI has slapped the higher charges, which are in the range of an average of five per cent. The news agency has quoted a senior NHAI official saying on Sunday that the new user fee will come into effect from April 3, 2024.

The revision in national highway toll charges is part of an annual exercise to revise the rates that are linked to the changes in the wholesale price index (CPI) based inflation. Currently, there are around 855 user fee plazas or toll plazas spread in the national highway network across India on which toll charges are levied to motorists using the national highway, as per the National Highway Fee (Determination of Rates and Collection) Rules, 2008. Out of these 855 toll plazas on national highways, around 675 are public-funded user-fee plazas and 180 are operated by concessionaires.

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