In order to lower travel costs and make road journeys more affordable for the public, the central government has reduced toll rates by up to 50 per cent on certain sections of National Highways that include structures like tunnels, bridges, flyovers, and elevated roads.

The move follows the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways amending the National Highways Fee Rules, 2008, an official notification said.

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It has notified a new formula for calculating toll charges after the changes.

According to the new rule, toll will now be calculated in a way that significantly reduces the fee on highway sections.

It said if a section of the National Highway includes structures like flyovers or tunnels, the toll would be calculated either ten times the length of the structures or five times the total length of the highway section.

The ministry, to explain it further, said that if a 40-kilometre stretch of a highway is entirely made up of structures like bridges or flyovers, then toll would be calculated on either 10 times the structure length (400 km) or 5 times the total length (200 km).

In this case, toll will be charged based on 200 km, effectively reducing the rate by half.

Earlier, users had to pay ten times the regular toll rate for every kilometre of such structures, as these types of infrastructure are more expensive to build and maintain.

Last month, Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari also announced a new FASTag-based annual pass for private vehicles.

The pass, priced at Rs 3,000, would be available from August 15 this year.

Designed specifically for non-commercial private vehicles such as cars, jeeps, and vans, the annual pass will remain valid for one year from the date of activation or up to 200 trips — whichever comes first.