Hike in highway toll fee deferred for two months

NEW DELHI: In a temporary relief to crores of commuters, the hike in toll charge or user fee on NHs has been deferred for two months.
The Election Commission of India has allowed govt to defer implementation of toll fee hike after road transport ministry sought permission last week. Sources said this is perhaps for the first time such a deferment has been done due to polls.
Notably, TOI online had first reported about the govt move on Sunday.
The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) will send official communication to all toll operators and private concessionaires about the decision today. NHAI will compensate toll operators.
Earlier, NHAI officials had verbally asked toll operators not to hike the user fee, which is a routine annual exercise.
Revised user fee (toll) becomes effective from April 1 across most of tolled highway stretches in the country.
Taking note of the informal instructions to highway operators, the umbrella body of highway developers organisation, National Highway Builders Federation (NHBF) had written to NHAI on Sunday seeking a formal notification or instruction.
It had said that recent verbal instructions were passed by the respective PDs of NHAI on March 30 (Saturday) that user fee rate revision effective from April 1 won’t not be implemented without specifying any reasons. “Further it is also verbally communicated to the concessionaires that NHAI would compensate the losses incurred on account of such instructions in due course of time. However, there are no written commitments received from the competent authority of NHAI for compensating the concessionaires for losses that would be incurred due to such actions,” it wrote.
NHBF had also mentioned in its letter that PDs communicated to the concessionaires on Friday not to publish the revised toll or user fee rates effective in local newspapers which is in contradiction to the provisions of the National Highway Fee (Determination of Rates and Collection) Rules and the Concession Agreements.
“Such verbal instructions from NHAI at the last moment has led to confusion amongst the concessionaires... In the absence of specific written communication (specifying the reasons for such actions) from the NHAI, the concessionaires are left with no option but to abide by the provisions of the Concession Agreements and the Fee Rules to adopt the implementation of toll/ fee rate revisions from April 01, 2024 validated by NHAI,” it said.