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Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari on Monday said the Road Transport Ministry is working on a uniform toll policy to provide relief to travellers on national highways.
Gadkari also said that now India’s highway infrastructure is at par with the US. “We are working on a uniform toll policy. This will solve the problems faced by commuters,” he said in an interview with the media. Gadkari was responding to a question on growing discontent among national highway commuters due to high toll charges and complaints of poor roads. The Road Transport and Highways Minister said the ministry has decided to implement a seamless Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) based toll collection system on national highways.
Gadkari said the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways is taking the complaints of commuters on social media very seriously and taking strict action against the contractors involved. At present, private cars account for about 60 per cent of the total traffic on national highways, while the share of these vehicles in toll revenue collection is barely 20-26 per cent. The introduction of toll collection on more and more stretches in the last 10 years has increased the toll charges, often leading to discontent among commuters. Total toll collection in India reached Rs 64,809.86 crore in 2023-24, an increase of 35 per cent over the previous year. The collection in the year 2019-20 was Rs 27,503 crore.
Gadkari expressed confidence that the Highways Ministry will surpass the previous record of 37 km of highway construction per day in 2020-21 in the current financial year. About 7,000 km of highways have been constructed so far in the current financial year. In the absence of a new scheme to replace the Bharatmala project, the pace of allocating highway projects has slowed down considerably. According to Gadkari, earlier under the Bharatmala project, the ministry had the authority to allocate highway projects up to Rs 3,000 crore, but now the ministry cannot approve any new project under the Bharatmala project.
He said, “For any project of more than Rs 1,000 crore, we will now have to take the approval of the Cabinet. We have sent projects worth Rs 50-60 thousand crore to the Cabinet for approval.” He said that after getting the approval, work will start on these projects. Responding to a question on the Delhi Assembly elections, Gadkari said that this time BJP will come to power in Delhi, because people are angry with the Aam Aadmi Party-led government. Voting will be held in Delhi on February 5 and the results will be declared on February 8.
