The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has directed field offices to process toll notifications and revisions under an amended fee formula for stretches that include one or more independent bridges, tunnels, flyovers or elevated highways. The change follows an amendment by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways on July one to the National Highways Fee (Determination of Rates and Collection) Rules, 2008; structures measuring 60 metres or less will not be treated separately for chargeable distance.

Under the revised rule, toll will be calculated by adding 10 times the length of such structures to the length of the remaining highway section, or five times the total length of the highway section, whichever is lower. The amendment therefore places a ceiling on chargeable distance and replaces the earlier approach that generally linked the fee to 10 times the structure length to reflect higher construction and maintenance costs.

The Gazette notification provides illustrations of the practical effect. For a 40 km section with 30 km of structures and 10 km of ordinary road the chargeable length would be 200 km rather than 310 km, while a 40 km section with 10 km of structures and 30 km of ordinary road would be charged on 130 km instead of 200 km.

The formula will apply to existing publicly funded toll plazas from their next scheduled user fee revision, concessionaire operated plazas after the concession period ends or on project transfer to the authority, and newly operational plazas from the date toll collection begins. A former NHAI official and ITS India Forum president, Akhilesh Srivastava, noted that previously a stretch dominated by bridge or tunnel could be charged at 10 times the structure length with no upper limit, and that the new cap ensures the fee is the lower of the two prescribed calculations.