India’s highway toll collection in FY24 increased by 34.9% year-on-year to a five-year high of INR 64,809.86 crore, helped by an increase in tolled roads and their users, according to government data.
Year-wise, toll collection stood at INR 25,154.76 crore in 2018-19, INR 27,637.64 crore in 2019-20, INR 27,923.80 crore in 2020-21, INR 33,907.72 crore in 2021-22 and INR 48,028.22 crore in 2022-23.
A senior official said a shift to satellite-based toll collection is expected to add to the revenue. “We are doing pilots across different stretches and based on the feedback, the system will be rolled out pan India in a graded manner,” the official said.
The ministry of road transport and highways is pilot testing the satellite-based GPS toll collection system that operates on the global navigation satellite system (GNSS) and the automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) cameras to ensure that customers pay only for the stretch they use. While ANPR is a low-cost solution and can be rolled-out easily in a short time, GPS-based toll collection will have high transition time, as all vehicles will need to be equipped with an on-board unit (OBU) or a tracking device for the automatic deduction of toll at national highways. The length of toll roads in the country stood at 45,428 km in November 2023, up from 25,996 km at the end of FY19, a jump of 74.7%.
As per government data, more than 79.8 million FASTags have been issued till November 30, 2023. The average daily collection via FASTags on national highway fee plazas is INR 147.31 crore.
