 "Fastag collections on national highways estimated at Rs 72,500 crore")
Fastag collections on national highways for the financial year 2025 (FY25) are estimated at around Rs 72,500 crore, given slower-than-expected traffic growth in the first half of FY25 and a tepid increase in toll fees, according to a report by SBI Capital Markets.
As per the report, FY26 is expected to see a recovery in toll revenue growth owing to a slight increase in toll fees combined with favourable base effects from mild traffic growth in H1 FY25.
Further, in H1 FY25, national highway awarding activity slowed due to adverse weather and elections. The report also notes that the cost of Bharatmala Phase-I increased significantly over its estimated budget, leading to a halt in awards since November 2023. However, the government’s recent move to award projects below Rs 1,000 crore is anticipated to provide a fillip to new awards.
The Bharatmala programme has about 12,000 kilometres of awards pending, with over Rs 2.4 trillion in costs yet to be allocated. A significant portion of this is expected to be spent in Punjab, Kerala, and Andhra Pradesh.
Moreover, construction activity during H1 FY25 also slowed down. However, H2, a seasonally stronger half-year, is expected to perform better than H1. Still, the construction estimate for FY25 is projected to remain below that of FY24.
According to the report, 70 per cent of the monetisation potential in national highway tolls, which could bring in around Rs 2.5 trillion for the central government, remains untapped. “We estimate the total monetisation potential of the current base of national highways for the Union to be about Rs 3.6 trillion, of which Rs 1.1 trillion has been realised so far,” the report stated.