Cabinet note soon to make up for national highways operators’ toll loss

NEW DELHI: The road transport and highways ministry will soon move a cabinet note to compensate highway operators for the loss incurred due to suspension of toll collection following the government’s decision to demonetise old Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes.
The government had directed toll operators not to collect user fee from the afternoon of November 9 till the midnight of December 2. This was done to ease the movement of vehicles on highways as lack of legally valid cash after the demonetisation was leading to long queues at toll booths.

“We will be compensating highway operators for their loss. We are soon going to move a cabinet note for the same,” road transport and highways minister Nitin Gadkari told ET. National highway operators have pegged their losses at over Rs 1,000 crore due to the suspension of toll collection.

“A decision is likely to come soon on the matter. The cabinet note is already under preparation,” Gadkari said. The government is also considering extending the toll collection period of the operators in their contract. But highway operators say they need immediate relief.



“The move to extend the toll period does not mitigate the pain of road developers. The compensation in cash would be a welcome move,” said Vinayak Chatterjee, chairman at Feedback Infra.

The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has also proposed an immediate relief for toll operators and said their interest cost along with the operations and maintenance costs should also be compensated. According to a senior ministry official, private toll operators for all BOT roads have already started submitting their claims for compensation.

Gadkari said that of the total number of toll transactions on national highways, almost 20% have moved to the digital payment method. “There has been a huge increase in the number of transactions through the digital mode. We expect it to touch 30% of the total toll collection in the coming months,” he said.

According to the ministry, over two lakh RFID toll cards have been sold since the November 8 demonetisation announcement.