The Hindu Business Line : New toll rules to be added to highway projects

New Delhi, Dec. 5 Hoping to attract bidders for the ongoing lot of 53 road projects, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) will introduce the new toll policy in the financial bids. The policy is expected to increase the toll revenue stream for the projects.

NHAI has been shifting the last dates for bidding for most of the projects in the financial bidding stage due to lack of interest from bidders given the current credit market conditions.

The new toll policy rules will be applicable only for the new projects. They will form a part of the financial bidding document of the projects.

The rules, which were approved by Cabinet recently, allow for a directly proportional linkage between the cost of construction of the structure (bridge, bypass or tunnels) and the toll rate. For instance, the toll charges will be higher for every Rs 5 crore increase in cost of construction of these structures. The existing toll norms have no such distinction.

“This will make such projects more attractive. But, who will certify the cost of a structure? If the cost indicated in the NHAI’s project report were to be used, then it really does not make much difference as the reports are old and specify much lower costs,” said an official from a road construction firm.

However, an NHAI official pointed out that the project report cost will be the benchmark to prevent the developers from building high cost structures or inflating the cost. The new toll rules also propose rounding off of the toll fees to the nearest multiple of Rs 5.

The toll charges will increase each year by three per cent (simple interest), and also take into account 40 per cent of the change in wholesale price index (WPI) between two consecutive years. The existing toll policy rules allow for factoring in the entire change in WPI.

For national highways of four or more lanes, the 2008 base rates for each kilometre will be 65 paise (car, jeep, van or light motor vehicles), Rs 1.05 for light commercial vehicles, light goods vehicle or mini-bus, Rs 2.20 for bus or truck, Rs 3.45 for heavy construction machinery, earth moving equipment or multi-axle vehicle (three to six vehicles) and Rs 4.20 for vehicles with seven or more axles.

The new rules propose same level of toll charges for both public and private funded highways.