The annual hike in toll charges on national highways in the State and also the Outer Ring Road of Hyderabad will come into effect from April 1.
Barring the Hyderabad - Bengaluru highway, the National Highways Authority of India has hiked the charges at all the 29 toll plazas across the State. The hiked charges will be applicable on Bengaluru highway from September as per the agreement with the toll operating contractor.
On highways, the hike will be five to eight per cent of the present charges for cars and jeeps, 10-15% for light commercial vehicles, buses and trucks. In effect, the hike ranges from ₹5 to ₹50
TSRTC has passed on the hike to passengers and inbuilt the same in its recent tariff revision. As such, the component of toll in the fare was also enhanced. The corporation remits the payment to operators in one lumpsum to its entire fleet. It had not revised its toll charges for the past four years. The Hyderabad Growth Corridors Limited has also hiked the toll charges by 3.5 to 5 per cent on Hyderabad ORR. The road users will have to cough up additional seven paise to 53 paise per km. The charges of monthly passes on both highways and ORR will also go up. The annuity payments to firms that constructed the ORR will terminate in 2022-23. This will reduce the outstanding of the company from this year. The volume of traffic on ORR was estimated at 1.20 lakh to 1.30 lakh vehicles per day.
The hike on ORR will not apply to cars and light vehicles travelling less than 20 km. For those travelling more than 20 km, the hike was ₹10. There was no charge for cars, jeeps and light vehicles from Nanakramguda to Shamshabad. Toll charges went up at 18 inter-changes on the ORR depending on destinations.
