The government has slashed toll charges by up to 50 percent on specific sections of National Highways (NH) that include structures such as tunnels, bridges, flyovers, or elevated roads. As per a media report, the decision is expected to reduce travel costs for motorists.
“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.
Toll charges on National Highways are collected under the NH Fee Rules, 2008. Recently, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways made changes to these rules and introduced a fresh formula to calculate toll rates.
To make the new toll system easier to understand, the ministry has shared examples demonstrating how the revised charges will apply.
In one of the examples shared by the ministry, it explained that if a particular section of a national highway is 40 kilometers long and consists entirely of structures like bridges or tunnels, the minimum tollable length will be calculated using two methods:
Ten times the length of the structure: 10 x 40 = 400 kilometers
Or five times the total length of the highway section: 5 x 40 = 200 kilometers
The lower of the two — in this case, 200 kilometers — will be considered for toll calculation.
“User fee shall be calculated on the lesser length i.e. for 200 kilometers” and not 400 kilometers. In this case the user charge is only on half (50 per cent) of the road length.
As per the existing rules, users are charged ten times the regular toll rate for every kilometre of structural components—such as flyovers, underpasses, and tunnels—on national highways.
A senior official from the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) explained that this method was originally designed to recover the significantly higher construction costs involved in building such infrastructure.
However, with the latest notification, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has revised the toll formula, slashing toll rates for these structural stretches by up to 50 percent, the official added.