On August 15, 2025, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi delivered his twelfth speech from the ramparts of the Red Fort, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) unveiled an annual “toll pass.” Indians can now use existing Fastag accounts to buy an annual pass for Rs 3,000, which will be valid for 200 toll payments on national highways and expressways. More than half a million passes were sold in the first few days. Many gave kudos to Nitin Gadkari, who handles the relevant ministry, for his infrastructure push.
But every silver lining has a cloud behind it. On August 18, a three-judge bench of the Supreme Court came down with a ton of bricks on the NHAI. To summarise, there is a national highway stretch in Thrissur district in Kerala, where travellers are forced to pay toll even though the roads are in a state of terrible disrepair. On August 6, the Kerala High Court ordered that the NHAI could not collect toll.
The authority appealed in the SC, which upheld the HC verdict, and added: “In a democracy, roads are laid on Build-Operate-Transfer contracts to ensure that the cost is collected from the users, (and) when motor vehicle tax is remitted for their (vehicle) use on roads, it is a sad reflection of the free market. That the successful bidder extracts much more than what is spent on construction and maintenance is a comedy of errors.”
Agony and ecstasy constituted my personal experience as I travelled 25,000 km on highways and expressways littered with toll booths on the eve of Lok Sabha elections in 2024. The distance from Thiruvananthapuram to Kochi is about 200 km. It is an expressway. It took an agonising over eight hours to cover the distance. The reason: Contractor was “upgrading” the expressway. A few days before, I travelled 450 km from Coimbatore to Kanyakumari like a breeze in less than six hours. It was painful torture on the Ahmedabad-Mumbai stretch of the much-hyped Delhi-Mumbai expressway. It was a pleasant eight-hour ride from Ayodhya to Delhi, which is a distance of over 700 km.
There is little doubt that road connectivity has vastly improved in India. It is a huge benefit not just for citizens but for the economy. As Gadkari recently pointed out, the logistics costs for Indian goods being exported is still about 14 per cent despite improved connectivity, while it is about eight per cent in China. Gadkari promised to bring down logistics costs to the single digits.
But for all his zeal, Gadkari can only do so much. The harsh reality is that there is unbridled corruption in the process. Contractors routinely compromise on quality, safe in the knowledge that there will be no accountability. Vast swathes of newly-constructed expressways were washed away during this monsoon. This means that the NHAI will have to place tenders again, and spend huge sums.
It is citizens who pay for this corruption and profligacy. Buyers of passenger vehicles pay a hefty amount as road tax at the point of purchase. This is supposed to finance highways and expressways. In addition, every time you and I fill petrol and diesel, we pay a cess for highway construction. On top of that, the BOT model of highways means we keep paying a toll every sixty km or so. There are four booths between Delhi and Chandigarh.
If you look at these numbers, it can be safely concluded that the NHAI often borders on a behaviour that is akin to highway robbery. The total toll collections in 2024-25 were Rs 72,000 crore. In addition, citizens paid a whopping Rs 1.5 lakh crore last fiscal by way of “highway” cess. Are they getting value for money even though there has been a visible improvement in infrastructure?
And yes, the Rs 3,000 annual pass can falter to deceive. A friend, who travels regularly from Noida to Lucknow, rejoiced when the news came. He spends close to Rs 1,000 one way on tolls. But his joy was short-lived. There is fine print. The pass is only for national highways. The roads, which are managed by the states, or deemed state highways, do not fall in that category. My friend needs to separately pay tolls on the Yamuna Expressway and Agra-Lucknow Expressway, which are managed by the state of Uttar Pradesh.
The author has worked for leading media houses, authored two books, and is now Executive Director, C Voter Foundation