How Nitin Gadkari is raising the highway toll bar: ‘Why charge if road not good?'

"Every system has a breaking point. I have understood the breaking point in toll collection," Gadkari said on June 25 in a room full of top bureaucrats of his ministry, highway concessionaires, technology partners and other stakeholders. "If you go beyond that breaking point, then politically you won't be able to collect toll. So, in order to collect toll, you need to maintain an equilibrium; you need to provide the best quality of roads," he said.

To illustrate his point, he cited the example of the Gujarat government. "The entire Gujarat state is against toll. We created a highway between Vadodara and Ahmedabad. The state government constructed a highway parallel to that," Gadkari said to explain the political implication of high toll charges and sub-par road-user experience. "I have to face the music. I get so many complaints with pictures of bad roads on social media," he said.

Toll charges have increased on highways even as more and more stretches have come under the tolling system over the past 10 years, often leading to rising user discontent.

Gadkari's strong remarks come as he embarks on the third term of the Modi government. Unlike the previous two terms, the ruling BJP is dependent on allies like the Janata Dal (United) and Telugu Desam Party (TDP). The political messaging from the BJP camp has been one of strength and continuity. Gadkari's message and the tone is being seen in the same light: that the new political equation has changed nothing.

Gadkari was speaking at a daylong workshop on the proposed Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) of toll collection, which the Indian Highway Management Company Limited (IHML), a subsidiary of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) that operates FASTags, is working to roll out in the country.

IHML and NHAI have identified 5,000 km of highway stretches that will get this technology, enabling vehicles to be charged toll only for the distance of the toll road used and not for the entire stretch. It will be a barrier-free experience wherein the information will be captured seamlessly by machines through use of telecommunications apparatus.

"People are driving through puddles and potholes and you are charging them toll… people curse us. And they curse not Santosh Yadav (NHAI chairman) or the secretary but Nitin Gadkari," said Gadkari.

He said that if the system collapses at toll plazas, leading to long queues and jams, there is hardly any justification for collecting tolls. "There are insiders in the system who are highly connected. They know how to switch off FASTags, shut down computers, etc. I have [information] from the grassroots, I know a lot," he said. "These people who are sitting inside the system know how to sabotage your efforts."

Gadkari said that with the rollout of the GNSS system, a lot of the loopholes will be plugged. "It's not possible to plug 100 per cent of the loopholes. That's an impossible concept. But if you can plug even 99 per cent of the loopholes, that's a big achievement," he said. As per his back-of-the-envelope calculations, the GNSS system will increase electronic toll collection figures by Rs 10,000 crore.

As Gadkari's behest, IHML officials recently went to Europe to check out successful implementation of the system in Germany and Belgium. "Don't experiment. No trial and error. Implement a foolproof system," he said and cautioned that the Indian "mentality" was different and one needed to design the system to prevent pilferage.

Speaking from the various experiences while rolling out FasTags, Gadkari said the new system needs to use technology to assign accountability. "Since the system will be linked to satellites, etc., there should be a way to know if someone at the toll plaza has tampered with it or tried some wrongdoing," he said, adding that if the plan is for rollout of 5,000 km to begin with, the preparation should be for 15,000 km on paper, such as environment and other clearances.

As per latest data, India has 72 million four wheelers, 40 million trucks and 15 million commercial vehicles, totalling to around 127 million vehicles. But the number of vehicles paying toll is around 90 million. "Around 25 per cent of the vehicles are not paying toll. They are stealing from the government. This is also a racket," said Gadkari.

There is a timeline for implementing GNSS. "The Expression of Interest has been floated and the last date of submission is July 22," said Vishal Chauhan, chairman and managing director, IHML. The target is to get the system rolling by the end of the financial year after weeding out bottlenecks, such as providing the right of way to telecom operators on highways to install towers for total coverage, to aid the system and change relevant rules to see that existing concessionaires do not lose money that is built into their original viability plan.

Gadkari's last two terms as transport minister have seen him court controversy over some plainspeak. Notably, in a similar gathering at the inauguration of the NHAI's new headquarters in 2020, he had publicly lambasted the premier highway agency for taking nine years to finish making its own office building.

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