In what comes as good news for commuters, the government is working on providing relief from the toll levied on the National Highway (NH). According to a report, the Ministry of Road Transport has proposed to reduce the toll by half while expanding the 10-meter-wide, two-lane national highway into a four-lane highway. It means that there will be a 50 per cent discount on the current toll. The ministry has come up with this proposal because during construction work on highways, passengers face difficulty and don’t get better service due to a decrease in the width of the NH during construction. Currently, 60 per cent of the normal toll is charged on such two-lane NHs, even if there is no construction work being done on them.
30 Per Cent Less Toll
If this proposal of the Road Transport Ministry is approved, the person travelling on the highway during the construction will have to pay up to 30 per cent less toll than the normal toll. In case of widening of 4-lane highways to six lanes or expansion of six-lane highways to eight lanes, the toll chargeable during the construction phase is capped at 75 per cent of the normal rate.
Minister of Road Transport & Highways Nitin Gadkari has announced a plan to convert 25,000 km of two-lane highways into four-lane highways with an investment of Rs 10 lakh crore in the next two years.
Expansion Of Two-Lane NHs
The government will focus on the expansion of two-lane NHs in the next decade, as about 80,000 km of the total 1.46 lakh km length of national highways fall in this category.
Earlier, in an effort to provide relief to commuters, the government had announced a Rs 3,000 annual toll pass scheme, which would allow private vehicles to cross 200 toll plazas annually.
Recently, the government has notified a new rule to reduce toll rates for structures like bridges, tunnels, flyovers and elevated sections on highways by up to 50 per cent, which will benefit commercial and heavy vehicles.
