User fees are to be revised at 28 toll plazas under the control of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) in the State from September 1. This revision will be for a period of one year. The State has 50 plazas on National Highways. The rates in the remaining plazas are revised every year from April 1.
These are plazas established under the National Highways (Collection of fees by any person for the use of section of National Highways/ Permanent Bridge/ Temporary Bridge on National Highways), Rules, 1997. The annual revision is based on the wholesale price index (WPI), where 2% increase is fixed and the remaining is calculated depending on the Index.
‘No profit’
A toll operator said the revision was very much a necessary annual move since concessionaires do not make any profit during the first 10 years of operation.
“We have to renew the surface of the road once every four years whether it has been damaged or not and that costs 40% of the original cost. In this work, we have to paint the medians, install cat’s eyes and lay road shoulders. Then we have to pay salaries of employees and there has to be an annual increase,” he said. Apart from these expenses, power bills for street lights at service lanes, urban stretches, bridges and junctions have to be paid, he said.
Meanwhile, truckers and transporters have been demanding that toll plazas be removed since it takes time and the process of paying toll was cumbersome.
Industry sources said efforts were on to introduce a GPS-based system by which toll plazas can be removed. The trial run is on currently and hopefully in two years, the plazas would be removed.
