National Highway toll collection surpasses Rs 500 billion

28 Feb 2024 CW Team

India touches Rs 532.8941 billion with more than 48,028 toll collections along the National Highways in the first ten months of the fiscal. The rapid increase is due to the steep rise of tolled roads and growing number of Fastag users.

As per government data, the toll collection of FY24 will hit a record-breaking Rs 620 billion, with average monthly collections of Rs 53.289 billion from April 2023-January 2024. The annual toll collection has seen steady growth since 2018. With Rs 251.5476 billion in 2018-19, Rs 276.3764 billion in 2019-20, Rs 279.238 billion in 2020-21, Rs 339.0772 billion in 2021-22 and Rs 480.2822 billion in 2022-23. The total toll length has increased by 75%, from 25,995 km in FY19 to 45,428 km as of November-end 2023. Historically, the toll length stood at 29,666 km in 2019-20, 34,071 km in 2020-21, 38,315 km in 2021-22 and 42,595 km in 2022-23. According to experts the toll collection will further increase by the use of GPS-based toll collection sysems. The revenue collection system is currently under government planning. Jagannarayan Padmanabhan, Senior Director and Global Head, Consulting, Crisil Market Intelligence and Analytics, said, ?The GPS-enabled toll collection could be a revenue booster for the government as all those who were so far taking alternate routes to avoid the entire toll stretch will now prefer to take the toll roads.? He mentioned that the current collection might not be significantly affected since most journeys cover distances exceeding 60 km considering that ?the distance between toll plazas is approximately 60 km, the effect will be minimal, but a balance will be achieved as more drivers start using the toll road." Padmanabhan, however, warned that GPS-based toll collection could result in increased traffic on toll roads and pose a challenge for the government in enhancing the backend process to ensure smooth transactions.

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