Even as Maharashtra has the longest National Highway (NH) network, it is fourth in terms of toll collected between 2018-19 and December 2022, according to the Union government’s data analysed by News18. Uttar Pradesh has earned Rs 17,242.87 crore user fee at toll plazas of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), highest among states, between 2018-19 and December 2022, followed by Rajasthan at Rs 16,566 crore and Gujarat at Rs 15,332.21 crore.
Responding to a query in Lok Sabha on Thursday, the Union ministry of road transport and highways (MoRTH) shared the details of state-wise user fee collection on National Highways in the past five years. Across India, Rs 1,48,405.30 crore was collected from toll between April 2018 and December 2022, it shows.
Analysing the data revealed that the toll collected in Uttar Pradesh has reported a significant increase in the past few years – from Rs 2,658.04 crore in 2018-19 to Rs 4,183.74 crore in 2021-22, a jump of 57%. Further, during this financial year up to December, Rs 3,949.20 crore has been collected as user fee on the highways.
Rajasthan is next in line and the user fee or toll collected on the national highways in the state has increased by 20% between FY 2018-19 and 2021-22. In 2018-19, Rs 3,064.6 crore was collected from the NHs in the state, while in 2021-22, it was Rs 3,681.72 crore. In the current financial year, in the first three quarters, the collection was worth Rs 3,490.85 crore.
THE MAHA NETWORK
According to the latest ‘Basic Road Statistics in India-2018-19’ released last year, the national highways constitute 2.09% of the total road network in the country and the total length of NHs was 1,32,499 km, as on March 31, 2019. Maharashtra has the largest network of NHs with 17,757 km (13.4%), followed by Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan at 11,737 km (8.9%) and 10,342 km (7.8%), respectively.
Also, according to the annual report 2020-21 of the MoRTH, India has 1,36,440 km of NHs of which 17,930.60 km falls in Maharashtra and 11,830.88 km in Uttar Pradesh. Next in line is Rajasthan, with 10,350 km of NHs and Madhya Pradesh at 8,940.54 km.
The top 10 states with the longest national highway network are: Maharashtra; Uttar Pradesh; Rajasthan; Madhya Pradesh; Gujarat; Karnataka; Andhra Pradesh; Tamil Nadu; Odisha; and Bihar. In UP, 455 km of national highway has been added between 2018 and 2021 while in Rajasthan, the addition is of 1,434 km. In Maharashtra, 203 km of national highway has been added.
The states which have collected the highest toll during the 2018-22 period were: Uttar Pradesh; Rajasthan; Gujarat; Maharashtra; Tamil Nadu; Andhra Pradesh; Bihar; Karnataka; West Bengal; and Madhya Pradesh.
The data analysed further showed that West Bengal, having just 3,665 km of NHs has collected Rs 8,478.27 crore, while Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Telangana, Punjab and Assam have earned fewer toll despite having a longer network of national highways.
NORTH-EAST collection UP NEARLY 7 TIMES; UTTARAKHAND sees 10 TIMES rise
The toll collection from North-East India has jumped by nearly seven times between 2018-19 and 2021-22, the data shows – from Rs 56.95 crore to Rs 387.97 crore in 2021-22. This year, up to December 2022, the region has collected Rs 343.53 crore from toll. In total, between 2018-19 and December 2022, toll collected from the region stood at Rs 1,132.41 crore.
Further, the toll collected from Uttarakhand between FY 2018-19 and 2021-22 has jumped by nearly 10 times – from Rs 33 crore to Rs 324 crore. This financial year, in just nine months, the hill state has surpassed all old records with Rs 331.23 crore toll collected. In the past five years, the state has collected toll worth Rs 829.07 crore.
Other hilly regions, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir have also reported massive jumps in toll collection.
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