Toll rates for many stretches of national highways are set to go up by 3 per cent this fiscal, with the wholesale price index (WPI)-based inflation for December 2014 at 0.11 per cent. In the last few years, the annual increase in toll rates of national highways in the range of 6-7 per cent.
The toll policy for national highways is such that the rates go up once every year on April 1, taking into account the WPI-based inflation recorded in December of the previous year. Business Line had reported a few days ago that the toll rates would go up by less than 5 per cent.
According to the 2008 policy, the toll rates of national highways should go up by 3 per cent and 40 per cent of the WPI-based inflation recorded in December. It also says that the increased amount will be rounded off to the nearest five rupees.
For many of the national highway stretches, with older toll policy regime, the rates go up every year in sync with the WPI-based inflation. So, for some stretches there will be no increase.
The rates should go up by just over 3 per cent this year, and for some old national highways stretches where rates go up linked to the WPI, there will be no increase.
“This is good news for national highway users, though could be a concern area for the road developers. But, even road developers should not have much of concern as they are registering good traffic growth,” National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) Chairman RP Singh told Business Line.
A Road Ministry official hoped this would take away some of the consumer flak and public policy concerns on toll rates. Many developers such as Ashoka Buildcon, L&T Infrastructure Development Projects Ltd and IRB Infrastructure are seeing double digit traffic growth on several of their national highway stretches.