The government has reduced the toll rates up to 50% for the sections of National Highways that have structures like tunnels, bridges, flyovers or elevated stretches, a move which will lower travelling cost for motorists.
User charges at fee plazas on National Highways are collected as per NH Fee Rules, 2008. The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has made amendment to 2008 rules and notified a new method or formula for calculating toll charges.
“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,” said the notification dated July 2, 2025.
‘Structure’ means an independent bridge, tunnel or flyover or elevated highway. To explain the new toll charges, the ministry has cited examples.
In one of the examples, it said that if a section of a national highway has a total length of 40km, comprising of structure alone, the minimum length shall be computed: ‘10 x 40 (ten times length of structure) = 400km or five times the total length of section of a national highway = 5 x 40 = 200km’.
“User fee shall be calculated on the lesser length i.e. for 200km” and not 400km. In this case, the user charge is only on half (50%) of the road length.
According to the extant rules, users pay ten times the regular toll for every km of structure on national highways.
A senior official of National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) said the existing toll calculation method was meant to offset higher construction cost associated with such infrastructure.
“The revised notification issued by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways reduces the toll rate for stretches such as flyovers, underpasses and tunnels up to 50%,” the official said.
