The same toll tax will be imposed across the country, a big statement by Nitin Gadkari

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Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari has given a big statement regarding toll tax. The Union Minister said that the Road Transport Ministry is working on a uniform toll policy to provide relief to travelers on national highways. In the coming time, the same toll will be charged across the country.

He said that we are working on a uniform toll policy. This will solve the problems faced by the commuters. Union Minister Gadkari was responding to a question on the growing discontent among the commuters on national highways due to high toll charges and complaints of bad roads. The Road Transport and Highways Minister said that the ministry has decided to implement a seamless global navigation satellite system (GNSS) based toll collection system on national highways.

Nitin Gadkari said that the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways is taking passengers' complaints on social media very seriously and is taking strict action against the contractors involved. At present, the share of private cars in the total traffic on national highways is about 60 percent, while the share of these vehicles in toll revenue collection is barely 20-26 percent. In the last 10 years, toll charges have increased due to the introduction of toll collection on more and more sections, which often leads to dissatisfaction among passengers.

will break the old record

Total toll collection in India reached Rs 64,809.86 crore in 2023-24, which is 35 percent more than the previous year. The collection in the year 2019-20 was Rs 27,503 crore. Nitin Gadkari expressed confidence that the Ministry of Highways will surpass the previous record of 37 km of highway construction per day in 2020-21 in the current financial year. So far in the current financial year, about 7,000 km of highways have been constructed. In the absence of a new scheme to replace the Bharatmala project, the pace of awarding highway projects has slowed down considerably.

The Union Minister said that earlier the ministry had the authority to award highway projects up to Rs 3,000 crore under the Bharatmala Pariyojana, but now the ministry cannot approve any new project under the Bharatmala Pariyojana. He further said that now we have to take the approval of the Cabinet for any project above Rs 1,000 crore. We have sent projects worth Rs 50-60 thousand crore to the Cabinet for approval.

BJP government will be formed in Delhi- Gadkari

He said that work on these projects will start after getting approval. Responding to a question on Delhi Assembly elections, Gadkari said that this time BJP will come to power in Delhi because people are angry with the Aam Aadmi Party-led government. Voting will be held in Delhi on February 5 and the results will be declared on February 8.