Good news for travellers, road trippers, and daily commuters! If you regularly travel on highways that include bridges, tunnels, flyovers, or elevated roads, your travel costs are about to drop. The Government of India has reduced toll charges by up to 50% on such highway sections, making road journeys lighter on your pocket.
Govt Slashes Toll Charges On Highways With Bridges
The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has updated the toll fee rules. These rules, originally framed in 2008, have now been changed to bring more fairness to how toll charges are calculated, especially on roads with expensive structures like tunnels, flyovers, bridges, and elevated highways.
These sections are costlier to build and maintain. So earlier, when a highway had these structures, the toll charges were calculated using a method that made you pay 10 times the normal rate for every kilometre of structure. But this also meant travellers were paying a hefty amount, even if the actual driving distance was short.
As per the Money Control reports, the government has now introduced a simpler and smarter formula to calculate toll:
They will now compare two calculations and charge a toll based on the smaller one.
- Ten times the length of the structure (bridge, tunnel, etc.)
- Five times the total length of that highway section (including the structure)
Whichever number is smaller, that’s what the toll will be based on.
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Travel Just Became Cheaper
Say you’re on a highway that’s 40 km long, and the whole stretch is a tunnel (structure). Earlier, toll was charged as if you were driving 10 × 40 = 400 km.
Now, they compare:
- 10 × 40 = 400 km
- 5 × 40 = 200 km
Since 200 km is less, your toll will now be based on that, saving you 50%, Money Control reported.
The new rule applies to bridges, tunnels, flyovers, and elevated highways—basically, any major construction on the highway that’s built above or below ground. This change will mean that commuters will spend less on daily tolls, truckers and transporters will save big on long-distance logistics, and everyone will get a fairer toll system.
According to the Money Control reports, a National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) official said that the earlier toll charges were meant to recover high construction costs. But now, with better infrastructure and government support, the system is becoming more commuter-friendly.
You can now drive through bridges and tunnels without worrying about sky-high tolls/
Cover Image Courtesy: Canva/Moon Safari (Representative Image)
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