New Delhi:

Union Minister Nitin Gadkari has said that highway agencies should not charge tolls if roads are not in good condition.

Mr Gadkari was speaking at a global workshop on satellite-based tolling, set to be implemented over 5,000 km this financial year.

“If you don’t provide good quality service, you should not charge toll…We are in a hurry to start tolling to collect user fees and protect our interest,” the road transport and highways minister said. “You should collect the user fee where you provide the best quality road. If you collect toll on roads with potholes, mud, then there will be a backlash from people,” he added.

State-owned NHAI plans to implement (Global Navigation Satellite System) GNSS-based Electronic Toll Collection (ETC) system within the existing FASTag ecosystem, initially using a hybrid model where both (Radio Frequency Identification) RFID-based ETC and GNSS-based ETC will operate simultaneously.

NHAI proposes to roll this out on commercial vehicles initially then private vehicles, considering scalability and privacy concerns.

The highway authority has also recommended driver behaviour analysis and back-end data analysis for fraud detection.

“With GNSS, the payment modes might be converted from prepaid to postpaid. Banks and financial institutions might be able to provide faster credits based on travel plans,” NHAI has recommended. 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

New Delhi:

India will hike road toll charges across the country by 3-5% from Monday, officials said, after putting the annual increase on hold in April due to the Lok Sabha elections.

Toll charges in India are revised annually in line with inflation and highway operators put notices in local newspapers announcing hikes of 3% to 5% at nearly 1,100 toll plazas from Monday.

“As the election process is over, the revision of user fee (toll) rates, which was put on hold during the elections, would become effective from June 3,” a senior official at the National Highways Authority of India told Reuters.

The official said hikes in toll charges and taxation on fuel products help pay for the expansion of national highways, but opposition parties and many motorists criticise the annual rise in charges, saying they increase transport costs of essential commodities and burden commuters.

High operators like IRB Infrastructure Developers and Ashok Buildcon Ltd will benefit from the toll increases.

India has invested billions of dollars over the last decade to expand the national highways, with a total length of about 146,000 kilometres, the second-largest global road network.

Toll collections jumped to more than 540 billion rupees ($6.5 billion) in the 2022/23 fiscal year from 252 billion in 2018/19, helped by a rise in road traffic as well as by increases in the number of toll plazas and charges.

India’s general election concluded on Saturday with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led alliance projected to win a big majority, TV exit polls showed.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

New Delhi:

The government is working on developing electric highways as it is economically viable, Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari said on Wednesday.

Nitin Gadkari has earlier said that making India’s first electric highway between Delhi and Jaipur is his dream.

“My idea about the electric highway is that NHAI will give right of way…Today, I had a discussion with the Power Ministry, I am trying to get electricity at the rate of Rs 3.50 per unit, otherwise, the commercial power rate is Rs 11 per unit,” Nitin Gadkari said at the ACMA annual session here.

The minister noted that it is easy for the power ministry to give electricity to a government company at a cheaper rate.

“Electric highway is very very economically viable…I will give all the rights to private sector investors who are going to invest (in the electric highway project),” he added.

Nitin Gadkari further said that electric cable construction will be executed by private investors and NHAI will charge an electric tariff just like toll.

Electric highways cater to electric traction for vehicles in the same manner as is done for railways. This is based on prevalent technology in a large number of countries like Sweden and Norway.

This involves the provision of power cables, which can be utilised by a vehicle which caters to this type of technology. The vehicle will utilise the power from this cable for its traction. At present, the ministry is evaluating various technologies.

“We are making the first electric highway pilot project in Nagpur,” he said.

The minister also pointed out that India is the fastest growing major economy, and the automobile sector is the pride for India.

According to Nitin Gadkari, the size of the automobile industry currently is Rs 12.50 lakh crore, up from Rs 4.15 lakh crore in 2014, when he took charge as the road transport and highways minister.

Noting that the import of fossil fuel is constantly increasing, he said it is time for the country to find a solution to this crisis. 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)