Total toll collection in India touched Rs 64,809.86 crore in 2023-24 a 35 percent rise over the previous year and surpassing government and industry estimates, as commercial traffic surged.

The total toll collection surpassed the Rs 55,000-crore estimate set by the government at the start of the year due to a sharp increase in tolled roads and the addition of new FASTag users. FASTag is the Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags issued to vehicles that allow for cashless transactions at toll plazas.

India's overall toll collection has increased by nearly 2.6 times in the past five years from Rs 25,154.76 crore in 2018-19. Total toll revenue stood at Rs 27,637.64 crore in 2019-20, Rs 27,923.80 crore in 2020-21, Rs 33,907.72 crore in 2021-22 and Rs 48,028.22 crore in 2022-23.

The government estimates that total toll collection in India will likely surpass Rs 70,000 crore in 2024-25 and rise to Rs 1,30,000 crore by 2029-30.

The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) will come out with new toll rates for 2024-25 after the upcoming Lok Sabha election.

The Election Commission (EC) last week asked the state-owned highways authority to go ahead with the calculation of new toll rates on highways, which usually kick in annually from April 1 across most of the tolled highways in the country, but said the new user fees should be applicable only after the results of the election are declared.

The annual revision was expected to be in the range of 5 percent.

The election to select the next Lok Sabha will be in phases beginning on April 19 followed by polling on April 26, May 7, May 13, May 20, May 25, and June 1. The counting of votes is on June 4.

There are 855 toll plazas on the national highways that bear a user fee as per National Highways Fee (Determination of Rates and Collection) Rules, 2008. Out of these, around 675 are public-funded plazas and 180 are concessionaire-operated.

The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) constructed 12,349 km of national highways in 2023-24, a 12.3 percent increase over the 10,993 km recorded in 2022-23, but still a long way off the 13,800 km target for FY24.

Despite recording the second and third highest rate of highway construction in 2022-23 and 2023-24, MoRTH has not yet completed the construction of 25,000 km of roads announced by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman as part of the budget for 2022-23.

Government officials expect the remaining 1,700 km or so will be completed by May.

In the last 10 years, MoRTH has missed its construction target seven times even as it built around 97,000 km of national highways while spending close to Rs 10 lakh crore.

The country's total length of tolled roads has risen from 25,996 km in FY19 to 45,428 km as of 30th November 2023 marking a 75 percent increase.

The total tolled highway length stood at 29,666 km in 2019-20, 34,071 km in 2020-21, 38,315 km in 2021-22 and 42,595 km in 2022-23.

As per government data, more than 79.8 million FASTags have been issued till November 30, 2023. The average daily collection via FASTags on national highway fee plazas stood at Rs 147.31 crore in 2023-24.