Toll on 2-lane highways may be off soon

The road transport and highways ministry, which is working on relaxing the toll rate regime, has proposed making tolling of two-lane highways discretionary. The government wants to make 2008 as the base year for any further revisions in tolls.

If the toll is levied for two-lane highways, the government is weighing various options for toll structure based on investment per km. For investments between Rs 1 crore and 2.5 crore per km, toll rate would be 30% of the maximum toll for four-laning. For investments between Rs 2.5 crore and Rs 3.5 crore per km, it would be 50% of the maximum toll for four-laning. For investments beyond Rs 3.5 crore per km, it would be 60% of the maximum toll for four-laning.

As per the present two-lane toll structure, 60% of the maximum toll for four-laning is charged for investments worth Rs 1 crore per km.

The other proposals include creating a separate category of toll for three-axle ten-wheel vehicles, which will be only 25% higher than the toll prescribed for 2-axle-six-wheel vehicles.

Also, for local users, the present rules provide for monthly pass on two-third of fee prescribed for 50 single journeys. The government is looking at reducing this to two-third the fee payable for 30 single journeys.

Meanwhile, surface transport minister Kamal Nath seems to be failing on the plans to come out with revised toll policy by the year end.

Ministry sources said a Cabinet note is still being prepared. Also, the pilot project on Electronic Toll Collection (ETC) has not yet taken off, according to National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) officials.

The government’s plan for toll technology upgrade has also not yet seen the light of the day.

“ETC pilot projects have not yet started due to hiccups in procuring instruments. We hope to start them in a couple of months,” said a senior NHAI official.

ETC is a technology that allows for electronic payment of highways tolls. These systems use vehicle-to-roadside communication technologies to perform an electronic monetary transaction between a vehicle passing through a toll plaza and the toll collection agency.

In order to have a common interoperable ETC technology throughout India, the ministry constituted a working group for finalisation of ETC technology.

Based on the recommendations of the Group, NHAI instructed the concessionaires to implement ETC in the toll plazas of three sections on the pilot basis.

These stretches are Panipat-Jalandhar, Gurgaon-Jaipur, and Surat-Dahisar.