NHAI debars 14 toll agencies over irregularities in fee collection

Cracking down on irregularities in toll collection, state-owned NHAI has barred 14 toll collection agencies for irregular activities, following a probe after Uttar Pradesh STF unearthed a fraud, according to an official statement.

NHAI has served show-cause notices to defaulting agencies.

Based on the FIR, 13 user fee-collecting agencies have also been debarred for a period of two years.

Besides, 12.55 lakh refunds were made in 2024 for faulty toll collections on National Highways, Parliament was informed on Thursday.

According to the statement, the 14 agencies debarred by NHAI include AK Construction, Alok Buildtech Pvt Ltd, Anil Kumar Shukla, Ashish Agarwal, Innovision Ltd, MB Construction, Maa Narmada Traders, RK Jain Infra Projects, SPC Infrastructure Pvt Ltd, T Suryanarayana Reddy, Vanshika Construction, Westwell Iron & Steel Pvt Ltd, Bhola Nath Rajpati Shukla and Shiva Buildtech Pvt Ltd.

More than Rs 2 crore have been levied so far on the user fee collecting agencies for incorrect user fee deduction cases.

Vehicles are sometimes charged toll fees even without travelling on a National Highway/Expressway when user fee-collecting agencies enter incorrect Vehicle Registration Number (VRN) in the system while manually creating VRN-based transactions. The double charging sometimes happens due to multiple readings by FASTag readers.

In order to ensure seamless operation of the toll plazas that were managed by debarred agencies, NHAI will intimate the defaulting agencies to hand over the toll plazas to a new agency that will be appointed by the authority.