Economic Activity Reviving In India? Highway Toll Collection Hits Over 80 Per Cent Of Pre-Covid Period

In a sign of revival of economic activities amid the Coronavirus pandemic, the toll collection on highways under the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has increased to over 80 per cent of the toll collected during the pre-Covid period, reports Times of India.

Besides, the share of revenue from commercial and heavy goods vehicles in the total toll collection has also soared up to 91 per cent compared to the 88 per cent during the first week of March.

Of the total 679 toll plazas under NHAI, the user fee is collected on 571 active toll plazas.

“The toll collection has seen significant traction and has almost reached 80-82 per cent. Toll revenue depends upon the traffic combination of passengers and commercial vehicles, which is witnessing a steady increase post easing of restrictions. We have observed that the traffic is almost stabilising now,” NHAI chairman S S Sandhu was quoted as saying.

The daily average transaction at toll plazas was around 57.1 lakh in the first week of March while the per day toll collection was nearly Rs 90 crore, according to NHAI.

The daily transaction in past week was around 40.4 lakh and the average toll collection was Rs 72 crore, which includes collections through FASTag as well as cash.

Though the daily transactions have decreased, the toll collection has bounced back due to the high share of commercial and heavy good vehicles plying on the highways.

It should be noted that the movement of private vehicles on the national highways is still less due to the pandemic.

According to the report, the daily toll collection of Rs 55.4 on Wednesday (29 July) was around 83 per cent of the toll collected during the pre-Covid period.

During the lockdown period, the daily toll collection was around Rs 66.6 crore across 698 toll plazas under the NHA, road ministry and state goverments.