Has it ever happened to you that you’ve stopped your car and rolled down the window to pay toll fees, only to realize that these can easily equate to a flight ticket or a bougie meal in a restaurant? We might sound like we’re exaggerating this bit, but toll prices in India have been exorbitant most of the time. In response to this, the Central Government has decided to lower toll rates by as much as 50% on national highways that include bridges, tunnels, and similar structures. Here’s the scoop you need to know about the new toll policy that might lead you to pay less on national highways.
New Toll Policy For National Highway: Drivers To Pay 50% Less
The Central Government has reduced toll rates by up to 50 per cent for sections of national highways that comprise a ‘structure’. The ‘structure’ here refers to tunnels, bridges, flyovers, or an elevated highway.
Currently, drivers were charged toll fees at toll plazas as per the National Highway Fee Rules, 2008. However, now the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has made certain amendments to this set of rules, introducing a new method to calculate toll charges.
The notification released by the government on July 2, 2025, reads, “The rate of fee for use of a section of national highway comprising of structure or structures shall be calculated by adding ten times the length of structure or structures to the length of the section of national highway excluding the length of structure or structures, or five times the total length of section of national highway, whichever is lesser”.
Understanding The New Toll Calculation Method Using An Example
While this may seem too technical to understand, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways also illustrated the notification with helpful examples. One of the examples is as below:
If a section of a national highway has a length totalling to 40 kilometers (km), comprising of structure alone, then the minimum length shall be computed in two ways:
- 10 times the length of the structure (40 km in this case). This will total to 10 times 40 km = 400 kilometers in this example.
- Five times the total length of the section of a National Highway, i.e. 5 times 40 km = 200 km.
User fee will then be calculated on the lesser length, i.e. for 200 km. This can potentially help travelers save up to 50% on the toll fees that they must shell out each time they drive on national highways.
Reducing Toll Fees And Making Journeys More Economical
As per the existing rules, travelers are charged ten times the regular toll rate for each kilometer of the structure on national highways. With the new rules set to be implemented, it can help reduce toll fees for travelers. Moreover, senior officials from the National Highways Authority of India have mentioned that the new toll calculation method is being implemented with the intention of compensating for higher construction costs of these structures.
The new move is aimed at reducing travel expenses and making road journeys more economical and affordable for travelers.
Summing Up
The government is trying to make highway journeys more hassle-free recently, take the new FASTag-based annual pass for private vehicles as an example. For INR 3,000, travelers will be able to use the pass for up to one year or up to 200 trips, whichever comes first. Along with this, now the new toll calculation method is aimed at making highway travel a more economical affair. What do you think of this move?
