New toll formula to cut highway fees

• New toll formula for highways with bridges and tunnels announced
• A calculation cap could cut fees by up to 40 per cent on some routes
• NHAI to roll out savings gradually during scheduled fee revisions

For most Indian drivers, annual toll updates usually mean one thing: higher charges. But a significant change in how toll fees are calculated could finally buck that trend, creating real savings on certain national highway routes.

A New Formula for Modern Highways

The potential savings come from a July 2026 amendment to the National Highways Fee Rules. The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has introduced a new method for calculating tolls on highway sections that include structures like bridges, tunnels, and elevated flyovers. Previously, the toll for such stretches was often linked to a simple multiplication of the structure's length—sometimes by a factor of ten—to account for higher construction costs. This often resulted in disproportionately high fees on routes with many such structures. The new rule introduces a more complex formula with a crucial cap, ensuring authorities must use the calculation that results in a lower tollable distance for commuters.

How the Savings Actually Work

The new rule provides two ways to calculate the chargeable length, and the lower of the two must be applied. For example, on a 40-km highway section that includes 10 km of bridges or tunnels and 30 km of regular road, the old system might have led to a very high chargeable distance. Under the new formula, the chargeable length would be a more reasonable 130 km, rather than a potential 200 km. In another scenario, for a 40-km section with 30 km of structures, the chargeable length is capped at 200 km instead of a much higher 310 km. This hard cap prevents excessive toll charges on infrastructure-heavy corridors and could lead to significant reductions, with some estimates suggesting a potential drop of up to 40% on specific stretches.

What About the Usual Annual Hikes?

It is important to note that this new rule is separate from the standard annual toll revision process. Most highway tolls are adjusted every April, linked to the Wholesale Price Index (WPI), a measure of inflation. In 2026, this annual adjustment led to modest hikes of around 3-5% on many routes, such as the Delhi-Meerut Expressway and others in Punjab. A recent court ruling also restored a specific WPI linking factor, causing a slight increase for commercial vehicles at some plazas in July 2026. So, while you may still see these minor annual increases, the new structural formula for bridges and tunnels offers a separate and more impactful path to savings on affected routes.

When and Where Will Tolls Go Down?

This is not an overnight, nationwide price cut. The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has directed its field offices to begin processing toll revisions based on these amended rules. The changes will be implemented at existing publicly funded toll plazas as they come up for their next scheduled fee revision. This means the savings will be rolled out gradually across the country over the coming months. The biggest beneficiaries will be commuters on modern expressways and highways that feature a significant number of bridges, tunnels, and elevated sections, as these routes will see the most substantial impact from the new calculation method. Drivers will need to check the rates at individual toll plazas as they are updated.