The government will roll out FASTag-based annual pass from August 15 to ease toll payments and cut congestion; aimed at private vehicle users for smoother highway travel
Company has a strong balance sheet, sees 'immense opportunities' in road monetisation projects
Uttar Pradesh topped the list of states that reported high revenue collection through toll on National Highways in the April-February period of financial year 2024-25, Parliament was informed on Wednesday. Union Road Transport and Highways minister Nitin Gadkari in a written reply to Rajya Sabha said the government collected highest toll on National Highways crossing Uttar Pradesh at Rs 7,060 crore, followed by Rajasthan at Rs 5,967.13 crore and Maharashtra at Rs 5,115.38 crore up to February 2025. Gadkari further noted that the government has also decided to implement barrier free Electronic Toll Collection (ETC) System with available technology and use of existing fee plaza infrastructure at selected sections of National Highways. According to him, the government is committed to address various issues pertaining to the levy of user fee and to enhance operational efficiency and promote convenience of the road users at the user fee plaza including the introduction of an Annual Pass
Commuters on national highways and expressways will need to pay more for their road journeys, as the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has increased toll charges by an average of 4 to 5 per cent on highway sections across the country. The revised toll charges for motorists on national highways across the country have come into effect from Tuesday, a senior highways ministry official told PTI. NHAI notifies toll rate hikes for all the national highways and expressways separately. According to him, the change in toll fee is part of an annual exercise to revise the rates that are linked to the changes in the wholesale price index-based inflation. Every year, it is implemented from April 1. There are around 855 user fee plazas on the national highway network on which user fee is levied as per National Highways Fee (Determination of Rates and Collection) Rules, 2008. Out of these, around 675 are public-funded fee plazas and 180 are concessionaire-operated toll plazas. The rev
Nitin Gadkari expressed his optimism about India's future in electric vehicle (EV) adoption, predicting that the country will surpass the US in both EV adoption and manufacturing within next 5 years
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 ...
Govt panel pulls up several bodies for slow monetisation, sets new targets
The 'false' FASTag toll deduction happens when money is wrongly deducted from a vehicle owner's FASTag account due to system errors, operator mistakes, or tech glitches in toll plaza infrastructure
The National Highway Authority of India further plans to monetise 86 highway stretches, covering 4,912 km, as a part of its strategy to raise funds for infrastructure development and debt reduction
National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has pre-paid loans of worth Rs 56,000 crore during the current fiscal, helping the state-owned agency to save interest cost of around Rs 1,200 crore, a senior government official said on Sunday. The official told PTI that NHAI's total debt at the beginning of the current fiscal year was pegged at Rs 3.35 lakh crore, which stood at about Rs 2.76 lakh crore at the end of third quarter of 2024-25 fiscal year. He further said that around Rs 15,700 crore has been pre-paid from the InvIT monetisation proceeds, while Rs 40,000 crore prepayment of loan has been made to National Small Saving Fund (Rs 30,000 crore) and State Bank of India (Rs 10,000 crore), which charge high interest rates. "NHAI is successfully reducing its debt liability," the official added. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her last year's budget had retained the allocation to NHAI at Rs 1.68 lakh crore for 2024-25.
The Supreme Court on Friday called for an introspection by government authorities, including the National Highways Authority of India, over excessive delays in filing of appeals. Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna while hearing a plea by the NHAI said, "I think everyone is adhering to the time schedule in almost 95 per cent of the cases. Why should the government of India not be able to adhere to it? There is something wrong somewhere... Introspection is necessary." The NHAI challenged an order by the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) in an insolvency case which was listed before the bench, also comprising Justice Sanjay Kumar. The NCLAT had dismissed the NHAI's appeal on account of the delay. Expressing disapproval over the 295-day delay, the CJI emphasised on the importance of adhering to procedural timelines and observed solicitor general Tushar Mehta, representing the NHAI, had agreed with the court and assured addressing the issue. "I undertake to speak to the
Earlier, during its annual general meeting on September 28, 2024, the company had approved the sale of 12 road assets
National highway awarding activity slowed in H1 amidst weather and elections
The Himachal Pradesh government has sent a proposal to the Centre seeking approval for five new national highways in the state, Public Works and Urban Development Minister Vikramaditya Singh said on Friday. Addressing a press conference here after holding a review meeting of his department, Singh said the construction of these proposed national highways will accelerate development in the hill state. "Efforts will be made to expedite the process by meeting Union Highways and Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari," Singh said, as he expressed hope that the Centre will give its nod to the proposals soon. During the tenure of the previous BJP government in Himachal, 69 national highways were announced but none of those announcements saw the light of the day, Singh claimed. The Congress leader also said that a provision should be made to keep aside 25-30 per cent budget amount for all new projects so that development work can proceed uninterrupted. Claiming that foundation stones for m
Any data sharing in GPS-based systems would have to honour data protection regulations
Vehicles equipped with On-Board Units (OBUs) featuring GNSS will automatically have tolls deducted based on the distance travelled, with the initial 20 km being free of charge
State-owned NHAI will track around 100 toll plazas with GIS-based software for seamless movement of traffic at national highways, an official statement said on Monday. According to the statement, these toll plazas have been identified based on congestion feedback received through 1,033 national highway helpline. The live monitoring and tracking system will provide congestion alerts and lane distribution recommendations when the queue of vehicles at a toll plaza is more than the prescribed limit, it added. The monitoring service will be extended to more toll plazas in a phased manner. Apart from providing the name and location of the toll plaza, the statement said the software will share details related to the live status of queue length in meters, total waiting time and vehicle speed at toll plaza. It will also provide congestion alert and lane distribution recommendation, if the queue of vehicles at a toll plaza is more than the prescribed limit, the statement added. In addition
In May 2021, the highway authority had introduced these provisions for projects where project reports were in progress and land for toll plazas was yet to be acquired
Move aimed at reducing impact of rising landslide, slope destabilisation in hilly areas where national highways have been built
NHAI has set an ambitious target of establishing 1,000 wayside amenities over the next five years, translating to one facility every 50 kilometres along national highways