NHAI reduces toll collection costs by ₹2,062 crore, increases efficiency in toll plaza operations
NHAI: The National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) has reduced its toll collection costs by ₹2,062 crore in the 2024-25 financial year.
The National Highway Authority of India has cut its toll collection cost by ₹2,062 crore in 2024-25. The cost has come down to ₹2,674 crore from ₹4,736 crore in 2023-24, a reduction of about 56 percent.
According to data released by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, toll collection costs have now declined from 17.27 percent to 9.27 percent. "Toll collection cost" refers to the difference between the toll collected by private agencies and the amount remitted to NHAI.
In the 2024-25 fiscal year, toll agencies collected a total of ₹28,823 crore, of which ₹26,149 crore was remitted to NHAI. In comparison, in 2023-24, the total collection was ₹27,417 crore, of which NHAI received only ₹22,681 crore.
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Officials stated that these savings were due to administrative and contract reforms implemented by NHAI. NHAI initiated strict contract monitoring, eliminated the previous "three-month auto-extension" policy, and now most contracts are awarded for a one-year period. This has ensured the timely completion of the tender process and increased transparency.
NHAI has reduced short-term contracts and curbed the tendency of contractors to repeatedly terminate contracts prematurely. A contractor can now be granted such permission only three times in a financial year.
NHAI has been constantly in dialogue with the All India User Fee Collection Federation to maintain the confidence of toll operators. Under this, bank guarantees and performance securities are issued in time, increasing competition in the tender process.
To avoid undue gain from tolls, NHAI introduced the new "windfall gain" rule. Under this, if the 15-day average collection of a toll plaza surpasses the paid amount to NHAI by more than 40 percent, NHAI can cancel that contract on the spot.
