You At some point of time you must have wondered how much the government earns from the toll collected on national highways. Now the government itself has given this information. Since 2000, Rs 2.1 lakh crore has been received as user fee on National Highways. This is a small part of the expenditure incurred by the Center on building a nationwide network of highways and expressways. At the same time, in the last 24 years, the government has earned Rs 1.44 lakh crore in the form of tax on toll plazas run in Public Private Partnership i.e. PPP model. Union Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari gave this information in response to a written question in the Lok Sabha.
UP on top
The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) receives toll only from sections that are built with 100% government funding. The highest toll among states has come from highway users in Uttar Pradesh. Uttar Pradesh also has the largest highway network in the country. At the same time, no toll revenue was received from north-eastern states like Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland. The Gurgaon-Jaipur corridor of NH-48 has collected around Rs 8,528 crore as user fees.
There is toll on 45,000 kilometers of NH
At present, toll is being imposed on about 45,000 kilometers of national highways out of 1.5 lakh kilometers. Gadkari said the government has come up with an additional feature with Fastag, introducing the implementation of free tolling using the electronic toll collection system. He said that at present the Global Navigation Satellite System based tolling system is not implemented anywhere on the national highways. The government charges toll only on those highways which have at least two and a half lanes. In response to another question, the ministry said that in the last five years the government has spent Rs 10.2 lakh crore for the construction and maintenance of NH.
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