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Our Bureau

New Delhi , July 7

USER charges in the form of tolls collected from the users of high-quality, access-controlled four/six-lane highways developed by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) are here to stay, says the Economic Survey for 2003-04.

In terms of policy, there should be a shift in focus from inaugurating roads to comprehensive corridor management, which can maximise the velocity and throughput of the highways. The economic return for the country from a given system of roads is controlled by the effective sustained velocity obtained and the number of vehicles that are able to exploit the channel in this fashion.

This motivates a shift in focus from road construction to high, sustained velocities. "The goal must be to get up to sustained performance of 100 km per hour. This may require a fresh set of institutional innovations and organisational structures as compared with the existing efforts, which are focussed on pre-inauguration activities," it said.

NHAI derives its revenues from a portion of the petrol and diesel cess and tolls collected from the users. The trend in toll collection has shown a rapid growth from Rs 85 crore in 1999-2000 to Rs 371 crore in 2003-04. The funding model of NHAI was once dominated by the fuel cess. However, in 2003-04, toll collections were roughly one-fifth of the income from fuel cess, which amounted to Rs 1,993 crore.

Incidentally, NHAI receives 43 paise out of the Rs 1.50 per litre cess on diesel and 86 paise from the Rs 1.50 cess per litre on petrol to fund the 13,146-km-long National Highways Development Project (NHDP) comprising the Golden Quadrilateral (GQ) and the North-South and East-West Corridors.

"The outlook for further growth in user charges in the form of tolls is bright given the steady completion of NHDP and the nationwide acceptance of the principle of tolling as the necessary price of high quality roads. These developments mark an important new phase in Indian infrastructure. The road sector demonstrates that significant revenues can be obtained through user charges to improve infrastructure and benefit the consumer," the Survey has said.

Till March 31, 2004, about 3,200 km of NHDP (comprising 2,612 km of GQ and 588 km of N/S and E/W Corridors) have been completed while another 3,709 km (involving 3,234 km of GQ and 475 km of N/S and E/W Corridors) are under construction with funds amounting to Rs 18,638 crore. Contracts for 6,211 km were yet to be awarded. It is expected that the GQ would be substantially completed by December 2004 and the Corridors by December 2007, the Survey stated.

Due to delays in project construction, the full economic impact of these projects is yet to come. However, the revolutionary improvements in velocity and safety on India's roads owing to the early highway stretches that have been modernised under the NHDP are already manifestly visible, the Survey says.

More Stories on : Roadways | Economic Survey

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