Toll collection across national highways has been on an upswing in India over the years, particularly after FASTag was mandated.
In the last financial year, toll collection stood at a massive Rs 48,028.22 crore from across the nation. News18 accessed the state-wise details of the amount collected on national highways across India in the year 2022-23 and learnt that among the states, Uttar Pradesh (Rs 5,583.43 crore) and Rajasthan (Rs 5,084.50 crore) have collected the highest toll, even though it is Maharashtra that has the longest national highway network.
Maharashtra is third with toll collection of Rs 4,660.21 crore on national highways. Clubbed with Gujarat (Rs 4,518.96 crore) and Tamil Nadu (Rs 3,817.48 crore), these five states account for almost half of the toll collected.
Interestingly, these states have been dominating the list of top five states with the highest toll collected for at least the last five years. The only difference this year was that Maharashtra was at the third position while all these years, Gujarat was performing better.
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Highest Toll Collecting Plaza
Across India, the toll plaza reporting the highest toll collection is in Gujarat — L&T Vadodara that collected Rs 455.94 crore during 2022-23. In the list of top 100 toll plazas, at least 14 are from the state, accountable for almost 70 per cent of Gujarat’s total toll collection. The state collected Rs 3,045.96 crore from these 14 toll plazas.
In the list of top 100 toll plazas, from where Rs 18,386.65 crore was collected in total, it is Uttar Pradesh that has the most number of locations at 15, earning Rs 2,639.58 crore. Gujarat is on the top in terms of amount collected, followed by Rajasthan, with 13 toll plazas in the list of top 100, and collection worth Rs 2,651.32 crore.
The collection in Gujarat becomes more special if we see it with respect to national highway length. Gujarat (6,635 km) and Tamil Nadu (6,742 km) are collecting more toll than states with longer road networks. In terms of length, these states are at eighth and seventh positions respectively.
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Among these five states, it is Gujarat that is performing the best in terms of toll collected per kilometer of national highway. The state is collecting about Rs 68 lakh for per kilometer length of national highway on an average while Maharashtra is collecting just Rs 26 lakh.
Nation-wide, this amount stood at around Rs 33 lakh for per kilometer length of national highway, data from Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MORTH) accessed by News18 shows.
Even as other states are earning lesser toll collection, there are a few where the per kilometre earning is better.
In Haryana, which has nearly 3,200 km of national highway, the earning was Rs 2,501.51 crore in 2022-23 — nearly 80 lakh per km. Similarly, in West Bengal, the average per kilometre earning from national highways is Rs 71.47 lakh.
Earlier this month, the ministry announced that the commuters will have to pay the 100 per cent toll charge on national highway stretches that were developed under build-operate-transfer (BOT-Toll) mode even after the end of the contract period and handling of the highway back to the government agencies.
So far, the government used to reduce the toll charges by 40 percent after they got charge of the highways.
