NHAI likely to discontinue fixed toll tax at Delhi-Gurugram Expressway

Commuters may no longer have to pay the 'fixed toll' charge on the Delhi-Gurugram Expressway as the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) has reportedly planned to implement ‘pay-per-road-use’ system. This means that travellers will only have to pay for the distance travelled on the expressway.

The 'pay-per-road-use' is an open road tolling wherein the authorities will install automatic number plate reading cameras (ANPR) at the entries and exits of the expressway, and these cameras will detect the distance travelled by a vehicle on the highway. The toll amount will be digitally deducted from the account of the registered vehicle. This will facilitate toll collection electronically and payment for the actual distance covered than a fixed toll tax. There will be no more fixed tolling booths in the system.

Minister for Road Transport & Highways (MoRTH), Nitin Gadkari announced last year that the ANPR cameras will be installed soon for toll collection on Dwarka Expressway. Also, he hinted at the removal of the Kherki Dhaula toll plaza with the consolidation of the proposed toll system. A delegation from IMT Manesar Industries Association called upon Rajya Sabha MP Kartikeya Sharma and submitted a memorandum for the same.

When national highways are built, toll plazas are constructed with charges specified by the government. Currently, for a single journey, a car is charged Rs 80 while a bus or truck pays Rs 235 at the Kherki Dhala tolling booth. The monthly pass will cost Rs 875 and Rs 3,470 for the vehicles running on this tollable length stretched around 27.7 km, respectively. The highway of Mumbai-Delhi is based on global positioning, where the electronic tolling carries out the procedure in a completely automated tolling procedure, recognising the toll area, and then decides the amount to be tolled after deducting the amount, which is dependent on factors like length of toll area, the vehicle in use, etc.

According to a report by the Hindustan Times, an official revealed that the highways authority at the Kherki Dhaula toll plaza collects around Rs 50-55 lakh on a daily basis. NPCI data for NHAI disclosed that the rechargeable tags, enabling automatic deduction for toll payment, known as FASTags, collected Rs 39,118 crore between February 2021 and April 2022.

NHAI has begun the tender process, and though there isn’t a fixed timeline, it can take around six months more for the implementation of the system. Toll slabs will also be decided later as the project will be on the way to being finished.