Road Ministry to remove 125 toll plazas for hassle-free ride: Nitin Gadkari

NEW DELHI: Highway commuters may soon enjoy a smoother ride, with the government deciding to scrap 125 toll plazas on some of the nation’s roads.

The government is identifying projects where toll collection has become unviable or the cost has been recovered, minister of road transport and highways Nitin Gadkari said on Thursday.

Gadkari said 74 such publicfunded tolls have been identified and 61 of them have already been shut down. The road ministry also plans to make all projects with an investment of less than Rs 100 crore under public-private partnership toll-free after addressing contractual obligations, Gadkari said on the sidelines of the Indian Supply Chain Logistics Summit.

A road cess levied on petrol and diesel may be increased to recoup revenue foregone by giving up tolling.

The road ministry has proposed raising the cess to both the Prime Minister and the finance ministry. It has also recommended a 2 per cent surcharge on the purchase of new vehicles. If both proposals are accepted, the ministry would end up making far more revenue than it will forego, a senior road ministry official said.

The road ministry has been considering the idea of removing toll for passenger and non-commercial vehicles, which contribute only 14-15 per cent of total toll revenue and account for almost 50 per cent of the overall traffic. In 2013, of the total toll collection of Rs 11,400 crore, only Rs 1,600 crore came from personal vehicles, according to road ministry data. The removal of toll plazas along with implementation of a pan-India electronic toll collection system on national highways may help to saveRs 88,000 crore by reducing waiting and saving on time and fuel, according to a joint study by the Transport Corporation of India and the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta.

Of the 350 toll points on the Mumbai-Delhi route, 140 have been converted to e-tolling, which enables cashless collection of charges. Gadkari said the introduction of e-toll in the country will help reduce the waiting time of vehicles, which presently costs 2-3 per cent of GDP. Besides causing traffic snarls, passengers have refused to pay charges and have resorted to violence at some toll plazas. Last year, the Delhi High Court directed the Infrastructure Development Finance Corporation to take over the Delhi-Gurgaon expressway and remove the toll plaza.