[Popeye]

Your travel on tolled national highways is set to become costlier from April 1. National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has revised its toll rates by 5 to 7%. As a result, prices of essential commodities are also likely to shoot up, transporters have said.
National Highway-2 project director Mohammad Safi told TOI, “NHAI has 372 toll plazas in entire country. Revision of toll rates takes place before start of every financial year. The rates are revised on basis of Wholesale Price Index (WPI) and may vary from one toll plaza to another in the same region. Toll rates on NH-2 have been increased by around 5%.”
According to revised rates applicable from midnight of March 31, toll rates for all categories of vehicles will be increased by 5% on majority of toll plazas. Rates for monthly passes (50 trips per month) have also been increased.
Small cars going from Agra to Delhi or vice versa via NH-2 will be charged Rs 10 extra toll tax from Sunday onwards. Similarly, commuters from Agra to Jaipur via NH-21 will have to pay around 6% more toll tax.
According to transporters, they have no option than increasing the rate of transportation, which will lead to increase in prices of essential commodities.

Mod note: Don't forget to mention the Source

[Sameer 26]

Every year, toll tax gets increased by few rupees. It would continue going forward too.
Why we have to pay toll when govt already collect tax in different ways.
Even if I have to pay, I don't mind paying reasonable toll if road is maintained that way. But many times, you still have to go through bad roads even after paying hefty toll.

[Subby]

Life of average motorists is becoming financially more painfull day by day!

I do not want to sound political; but in last budget itself, Govt introduced road cess @ INR 8/- per litre of gasoline. For personal LMV, on return journey basis, we are paying approx 50- 70 paise per km as toll on National Highways. The figure is much higher for commercial vehicles. Correct me if I am wrong!

What is more frustrating, even if you pay your taxes, you cannot expect appropriate road conditions and driving comfort on Indian highways.

[Sameer 26]

@Subby, it's not just increase in toll tax but addition of new toll booths every year.
If you have to pay toll once to cover distance of say 500 Kms, it's quite possible that you would end up paying toll at three places for the same distance over a period of time. Again, it doesn't really mean you would have fantastic roads to cover that distance after paying so many toll taxes.

[Surya-TJet]

Sorry for sounding awfully political; but the fact remains that the government is trying to recover the NPAs from institutional lending in such forms & means.

There is no real improvement in infrastructure (in terms of traffic flow and travel time) and there is no real change in road safety or speed of emergency services.

Considering that these are the basic things one expects while paying more; the one other thing that still irks me is this - Why do we have to pay 10-18% "ROAD TAX" on a new vehicle and then shell out even more for such nonsense..??

At the very least the toll should be exempt for "IN-STATE" vehicles; and can be collected only from Out of State vehicles. I mean, I am after all paying 10-18% of my vehicle price for registration of my vehicle to a particular state in the country. So, when I am within my vehicle's home state, I should be exempted from paying tolls (at least a 50% discount or some such stuff if not a full exemption).

Is this so hard to implement..??

[koolguy_ani]

I don't mind paying for the tolls, but what I have seen recently during the past few years is that the "return" type toll ticket which used to make the toll burden a bit lighter on the pocket is no longer available at most of the toll booths which also does include Mumbai Pune Exp-way, Ahmedabad- Baroda exp way, Dahisar toll plaza, etc.. These are the road stretches which are frequented by a lot of motorists. Is this a scam?

[A M]

Originally Posted by koolguy_ani

...Is this a scam?

Quite a possibility. Return tickets are available at tolls around Chandigarh.

[romeomidhun]

Heard a lot earlier that private vehicles may not need to pay toll, and now says 'the toll is increased'.

They create a lot of noise for things which they say they will do
Get media and people's attention
Then do nothing
Do just the opposite
Start talking about a new thing to cover it up
Give foolish explanations like toilets.

Many examples for these seesawing acts in the transport sector itself:

Fuel pricing
One nation - one tax
This toll payment fiasco
Hybrid vehicle taxation
Talk about shifting to electric cars and then tax the 'bridging' hybrids at exorbitant rates
Go all-electric by 2030 and then backtrack...

They need to remember one thing - the quote by Lincon: "You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time."

They act like they are "clever", but are just fools who just go with the wind. Will be blown away in a real hurricane.

[Ananthc]

I am happier to pay additional toll charges provided the roads are maintained properly as it saves time and less wear and tear to the vehicle. However in many places the roads are poorly maintained.

Classic example is the chennai- Kanchipuram stretch which is horrible.

The second one which comes to the mind is the OMR stretch where there is no upkeep at all. The operators haven't maintained this stretch, the service roads and it is a nightmare to drive during peak hours.

A toll road ideally needs to allow the rider to save time by increasing the speed limits, creating bypasses ( like bridges etc) at the junctions, have proper maintenance done, create safe pedestrian crossings etc. I don't think this is made available at all.

In other countries, toll roads within city limits means that it allows you to bypass the junction and save considerable travelling time. Alas in India it is created for the benefit of the private operators!