Highway toll policy: Nitin Gadkari says plan to benefit bus operators, green hydrogen truck corridors identified

The road transport ministry is preparing a toll policy to extend benefits to both state and private bus operators who use national highways, Union minister Nitin Gadkari said on Thursday.

The government has already rolled out a FASTag-based annual pass for non-commercial vehicles at Rs 3,000 from August 15, aimed at easing highway travel. The pass is valid for one year from the date of activation or up to 200 trips, whichever comes first, and is applicable only for non-commercial private vehicles such as cars, jeeps and vans, PTI reported.

"We are working on a toll policy to provide benefits to state and private bus operators who use national highways," Gadkari said while addressing the Bharat Prawaas Awards organised by the Bus and Car Operators Confederation of India (BOCI).

The minister also said the government has identified 10 highway stretches for running green hydrogen-powered trucks in a move to cut vehicular pollution. These stretches will be equipped with hydrogen filling stations, to be set up by Indian Oil and Reliance Petroleum.

Gadkari added that truckmakers including Tata Motors, Ashok Leyland and Volvo have already begun manufacturing hydrogen-powered vehicles. The identified corridors include Greater Noida-Delhi-Agra, Bhubaneswar-Puri-Konark, Ahmedabad-Vadodara-Surat, Sahibabad-Faridabad-Delhi, Jamshedpur-Kalinganagar, Thiruvananthapuram-Kochi and Jamnagar-Ahmedabad.

He further said that the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) is building 750 wayside amenities on private land along national highways.