Gurugram-Jaipur Highway: Toll worth Rs 2,500 crore collected from Gurugram-Jaipur Highway! Four years ago, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways started collecting toll from Gurugram-Jaipur Highway, which is commonly known as National Highway (NH) 8, at three places. The government has collected around Rs 2,500 crore from the financial year 2016-17 till February 2020, Nitin Gadkari, Union Minister, Ministry of Road Transport and Highways said in a written reply in Rajya Sabha yesterday. He informed that these toll plazas are located in Shahjahanpur, Manoharpur and Daulatpura areas of NH8 and are operational on the BOT (Built Operate and Transfer) model.
According to Nitin Gadkari, the government collected Rs 569 crore in the year 2016-17 while the collections for the year 2017-18 stood at around Rs 666 crore. The toll collection increased in the 2018-19 fiscal year to Rs 708 crore. However, in this fiscal, toll collection till February 2020 remained lower when compared to last year. The data suggests that more than Rs 555 crore went in the government’s kitty this year via toll on Gurugram-Jaipur Highway.
Discussing the toll collection numbers, Gadkari also said that the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has also provided emergency medical facilities at toll plazas for road accident victims as per concession agreement provisions.
Meanwhile, the government has been aiming to make the toll collection hassle-free across the country with the introduction of FASTags, which are RFID-enabled stickers that allow for toll payments to be made digitally, hence reducing the wait time at tolls. The Modi government has mandated electronic toll collection and has issued more than 1 crore FASTags. In January this year, the authority also witnessed a toll collection of Rs 82.6 crore in one day, which has been the highest one-day collection. Moreover, NHAI will also be launching its first Infrastructure Investment Trust (InvIT) in the beginning of the financial year 2020-21.
