NHAI saves over Rs 2,000 crore in toll collection charges
“This is mainly due to various initiatives taken by NHAI such as close monitoring of existing contracts, deletion of default three-month extension clause, timely bidding, ensuring award of one-year maximum contracts and minimizing three-month short-term contracts,” NHAI said in a statement on Thursday. he said.
According to NHAI, in percentage terms, the cost of toll collection has decreased from 17.27% in FY 2023-24 to 9.27% in FY 2024-25.
‘Cost of Toll Collection’ is the difference between the toll fee collected by tolling agencies and the amount remitted to NHAI at publicly funded toll plazas.
In Financial Year 2023-24, the total toll collected by toll agencies amounted to Rs 27,417 crore, of which around Rs 22,681 crore was remitted to NHAI.
However, in Financial Year 2024-25, toll agencies collected a total of around Rs 28,823 Million as toll, out of which around Rs 26,149 Million was sent to NHAI. NHAI said measures have been taken to drastically reduce short-term three-month contracts, limit only three early termination requests during a financial year and restrict the same contractor from offering toll booths offering early termination. “The timely release of performance guarantee (cash portion) and bank guarantees of toll collection agencies has further increased their bidding capabilities, leading to higher bid amounts,” he said.
“Apart from this, to avoid any unexpected gain by the fee collection agencies, a ‘Windfall Gain’ clause has also been introduced in the agreements, according to which the agreement of the fee collection agency may be terminated if the moving average of fee collection in the last 15 days is more than 40 per cent of the remittance paid to NHAI.”
