Govt Halves Tolls on Tunnel and Flyover Highway Sections

07 Jul 2025 CW Team

Commercial vehicle owners will soon pay far less to use national highways featuring costly structures such as tunnels, bridges, flyovers and elevated stretches. The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) has amended the National Highway Fee Rules 2008, reducing toll calculations for these segments by as much as 50 per cent.

Under the notification of 2 July, the tollable length of any highway section that consists wholly or partly of a structure is now whichever is smaller: ten times the structure’s own length, or five times the total section length. Only half of that computed distance is then billed at the standard per kilometre rate.

MoRTH illustrated the change with a 40 kilometre section made entirely of structures. Instead of being charged on 400 kilometres (the former rule of ten times the length), the fee will now be based on 200 kilometres—five times the section length—and only half of that, 100 kilometres, will attract the user charge.

The National Highways Authority of India notes that the old formula compensated for the high capital cost of building major structures. The new approach, officials say, brings charges closer to road users’ ability to pay while still recouping investment over time.

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