India looks at ways to use growing toll revenue

India’s ministry of road transport and highways has embarked on an exercise to see if the government can build more roads through its own resources using the revenue from toll collection. The ministry and the National Highways Authority of India are both flush with cash as more roads have come under tolling. Officials are considering moving away from public-private partnerships until economic conditions improve. Instead they are considering cash-contracts for new road construction and leveraging debt bas
April 10, 2014 Read time: 2 mins
RSSIndia’s ministry of road transport and highways has embarked on an exercise to see if the government can build more roads through its own resources using the revenue from toll collection.

The ministry and the 4855 National Highways Authority of India are both flush with cash as more roads have come under tolling. Officials are considering moving away from public-private partnerships until economic conditions improve. Instead they are considering cash-contracts for new road construction and leveraging debt based on the toll revenue.

Since 2004, the length of toll roads has increased from 1,826 kilometres to 6,660 kilometres for public-funded projects and from 70.35 kilometres to 6,585 kilometres for Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) projects. This has led to a 700 per cent increase in total toll collection in the period 2004-2005 to 2012-2013. About 63 per cent of this revenue comes from public-funded projects.

Officials say the growth in toll revenue means they have enough money to go ahead with road projects using their own resources.  They also plan to deploy more toll roads to maximise earnings and plough the revenue back into road construction.
Enforcement

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Electronic toll collection delivers efficient traffic regulation
    February 3, 2012
    Electronic tolling systems have been in use for decades now. Worldwide, steadily more and more tolling systems are being set into operation, providing efficient means for traffic regulation and financing of infrastructure. But despite this maturity enforcement is still not being given the consideration it deserves. Q-Free's Steinar Furan writes
    Read More
  • Include ITS in policy decisions from the start, not as an afterthought
    February 1, 2012
    DG TREN's Fotis Karamitsos, on why the European Commission's new ITS Action Plan is looking to the past for future direction. The European Commission's (EC's) new Action Plan for the Deployment of Intelligent Transport Systems in Europe, which was announced as 2008 drew to a close, intends that transport and travel become 'cleaner; more efficient, including energy efficient; and safer and more secure'. At first sight, that wording might be interpreted as marking a significant policy shift within Europe, wit
    Read More
  • TransCore wins contract on new HOV to Express lane conversion
    April 3, 2012
    California’s Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) has launched the first phase of its 290km conversion of high occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes to Express Lanes, or commonly known as high occupancy toll (HOT) lanes, with TransCore serving as lead integrator for the project. The US$11.8 million programme comes at a crucial time in Silicon Valley as it prepares for an expected 38 per cent growth in population over the next 20 years and funding for transportation improvements is projected to grow at
    Read More
  • Managed motorways, hard shoulder running aids safety, saves time
    January 30, 2012
    The announcement that, in 2012/13, work to extend Managed Motorways to Junctions 5-8 of the M6 near Birmingham in the West Midlands is scheduled to start marks the next step for the UK's hard shoulder running concept, first introduced on the M42 in 2006. The M6 scheme is in fact one of several announced; over the next few years work will start on applying Managed Motorways to various sections of the M1, M25 London Orbital, M60 and M62. According to Paul Unwin, senior project manager with the Highways Agency
    Read More

Highlighted Content