Fast-Tag toll revenues likely to cross Rs 50,000 crore this year

With nearly Rs 46,000 crore of revenues collected from Fast Tag tolls for fiscal 2022–23, the Government of India is on track to collect more than Rs 50,000 crore for FY24. 

Responding to a question about the sharp increase in revenues from fast-tracking vehicles on the highway through the cashless scheme, Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari told Rajya Sabha members today that "The government of India has already collected Rs 35,000 crore worth of Fastag revenues in the first nine months of the current fiscal."

A simple back-of-the-hand calculation done by Autocar Professional shows that the country will easily cross the Rs 50,000 crore mark through toll revenues alone for the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) with a monthly run rate of close to Rs 3,800 crore.

Sharing further details about monetising various NHAI's assets, Gadkari informed Rajya Sabha members that close to Rs 38,876 crore has been raised by awarding various projects for the Mumbai-Delhi Express Way Special Purpose Vehicle.

He also revealed that the Infrastructure Investment Trust (InvIT) program had awarded approximately Rs 10,200 crore in projects.

NHAI's INVIT bonds, which have now raised Rs 10,000 crore and are yielding 8.5% to investors, have been used to construct more than eight major road projects across India.

According to a Motilal Oswal Financial Services report, the NHAI, which has a project bank of 20,000 km of completed roads, intends to list close to 46 projects spanning over 2,612km for monetisation under the INVIT scheme in FY24.