Comments
Following the lockdown, the Ministry of Road Transportation and Highways (MoRTH) has suspended collection of tolls on all national highways for the 21-day period.
The constrained vehicular movement in the run up to the lockdown will also push the toll collections into the negative territory for FY20.
Already, the performance of toll road projects remained sub-par during the nine months ended FY20 owing to the dual impact of revision in axle load norms and the general slowdown in the economy, which resulted in muted growth in toll collections in the 1-2 per cent range.
Overall, the annual toll collections for FY20 are expected to see a 2-3 per cent decline.
The decline in toll collections for March is estimated to be more than 40 per cent. Further, with vehicular movement likely to be constrained beyond April too, given the current situation, ICRA expects the first quarter FY21 toll collections also to beaffected.
However, there is some succour in this for toll operators, as according to the MoRTH circular dated March 25, the 21-day toll suspension would be treated as force majeure event.
Comments
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.