CHENNAI: The user fees are to be hiked at 40 toll plazas under the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) across the State, including those around Chennai, from April 1, with the spike ranging from Rs 5 to Rs 25 for various categories of vehicles.

It may be noted that Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari had said on Wednesday that the government would soon announce a new policy for toll charges on national highways and that the policy will offer reasonable concessions to consumers.

Tamil Nadu has a total of 78 operational toll plazas, including 12 user fee plazas opened in the last two financial years. Of the 78, user fee will be revised in 40 toll gates on April 1 and for the rest will be revised on September 1, every year. The toll charges are revised based on the wholesale price index under the provisions of the National Highway Fee (Determination of Rates and Collection) Rules, 2008.

The toll plazas at Vanagaram and Surapattu on the Chennai Bypass, Nallur on the Chennai-Kolkata Highway, and Athur and Paranur on the Tambaram-Tindivanam NH, among others, will undergo a fee revision.

A wholesale trader in the Koyambedu vegetable market said the increase in toll charges will lead to freight cost hikes and, in turn, will affect the price rise of commodities. “Toll charges are the second highest expense incurred by truck owners, after diesel. If we operate a truck from Maharashtra to Chennai, we end up paying Rs 1,000 or more as toll alone,” he said.

To a question raised by Rajya Sabha member P Wilson on the closure of toll plazas, minister Gadkari had categorically stated that the user fee at fee plazas on national highways was collected in perpetuity.

“For publicly funded projects, the fee leviable shall continue to be collected in perpetuity for such sections of the national highway, bridge, tunnel or bypass, as the case may be, to be revised annually by these rules.