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India is paying to be on the move

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Anil Sasi New Delhi
Last Updated : Feb 26 2013 | 1:25 AM IST
 India is steadily moving towards a toll road regime, with nearly 1,420 km of four-lane national highways already charging user fees from commuters.

 While Gujarat has the highest number of sections of national highways that charge toll, with three sections totalling 325.16 km, Haryana comes next with 256.21 km of tolled national highways.

 Most of the national highway sections coming under the toll regime include corridors being upgraded under the ongoing Rs 58,000-crore National Highways Development Project (NHDP).

 The single longest section of the national highway, presently charging user fees, is the 161.52-km Haryana border-Kotputli-Chandwazi-Jaipur bypass on NH-8 in Rajasthan.

 The 159.84-km Haryana border-Khanna-Jalandhar section in Punjab is also among the highway sections under tolls.

 In Gujarat, the three sections levying user fees include the 148-km Vadodara-Bharauch-Surat division on NH-8 and the 121-km Bamanbore-Bagodara division on NH-8A. The sections under tolls in Haryana include the 116-km Panipat-Punjab border division on NH-1.

 Gujarat, Haryana, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh have more than one national highway sections under tolls, while all other states have just one section each where user charges are being levied.

 The number of national highways sections under tolls is set to go up in a major way with the progress of the National Highways Development Project.

 Under this project, over 13,000 km of national highways are being multi-laned and refurbished. The government has taken a decision to put all these sections under tolls.

 The project comprises 5,846 km of national highways under the golden quadrilateral project, involving four-laning of highways between the four metros of Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata.

 The golden quadrilateral project is set for completion in 2005. The second phase of the project, comprising multi-laning of the 7,300-km north-south corridor that links Srinagar to Kanyakumari and the east-west corridor joining Silchar and Porbandar is set to be completed in 2007.

 

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First Published: Aug 16 2003 | 12:00 AM IST

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