The Ministry of Road, Transport and Highways has not only been its best-performing department but also the recipient of the most generous budgetary allocations.

From building 12.1 kilometres per day of roads in 2014, India is adding 28.1 kilometres of new roads every day. From Rs 34,345 crore in 2014-15, budgetary allocations for roads and highways are estimated to have grown by about eight times to Rs 2,70,434 crore in 2023-24.

Highways have been the cornerstone of the government’s thrust on road infrastructure. Minister of Road, Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari recently told Parliament that national highways projects totalling 43,856 kilometres, involving investments of Rs 9,60,103 crore, are under construction. According to official data, the total length of national highways in the country stood at 1.46 lakh kilometres as of December 2023.

The spread of these highways and their usage, however, is not even across the country, a deep dive into data by The Secretariat showed. The unevenness and divergence across states have policy implications as it has a bearing on the long-term viability of the government’s ambitious highway expansion programme.

What The Data Does, And Doesn’t, Tell Us

Frequency tallies are a practical way to give a bird’s eye view of any area. While accurate, they do however have the potential to oversimplify or even obscure a clear picture.

Looking at the expansive network of National Highways in India, data from the government of India reveals that the length of national highways built till December 2022 brings Maharashtra to the top of the leaderboard at a length of about 18,460 kilometres. This is followed by Uttar Pradesh (12,270 km), Rajasthan (10,706 km), Madhya Pradesh (9,105 km), and Andhra Pradesh (8,683 km).

On the other hand, toll collection in the financial year 2022-23 was highest in Uttar Pradesh at Rs 5,583 crore, followed by Rajasthan (Rs 5,085 crore), Maharashtra (Rs 4,660 crore), Gujarat (Rs 4,519 crore), and Tamil Nadu (Rs 3817 crore).

At the onset, and without further details, an inference can be drawn that the higher realisation of toll revenue is due to either the long length of the highways, or a high volume of vehicles.

While per traveller cost could be a factor, it cannot be because of a high variance in toll fee collected on different roads, since user fee is calculated in accordance with National Highways Fee (Determination of Rates and Collection) Rules 2008 for public funded fee plazas and the then applicable Fee Rules and provision of Concession Agreement for Build-Operate-Transfer (Toll) Fee plazas.

Another picture comes to the fore when the toll collected per kilometre of highway is calculated for each state and compared to the ratio of total highway length in a state to its area.

The Case Of Punjab

When the concentration of highways is calculated with respect to the size of the state, it is seen that Punjab fairs the best. However, the state’s toll collection per kilometre is on the lower side at Rs 28 lakh per kilometre. This implies that although there is a higher concentration of highways per square kilometre, the realisation of toll is low, placing the state at the lower right quadrant (see chart above).

At the beginning of the year, Union Minister for Road Transport & Highways, Nitin Gadkari, inaugurated 29 National Highway projects in Punjab. While a robust system of roads is imperative in each state, without a focus on the reasons for lower toll collection in certain states like Punjab, a question may arise on whether or not the cost incurred on account of building more national highways is justified.

The Corridor Of West Bengal

In stark contrast, West Bengal collects Rs 71 lakh per kilometre, making it the state with one of the highest rates of revenue realisation from highways. But, given that the concentration of highways falls below the median ratio, it falls in the top left quadrant, pointing to a high volume of users on a lower number of roads.

This tributary-like network of national highways across the country are often termed as economic corridors. In West Bengal, the highways also serve as a physical corridor to the northeast of the country.

Haryana Comes On Top

While hidden in frequency distributions, this view reveals that Haryana has the most balanced toll realisation to highway penetration ratio. The state collects about Rs 74 lakh per kilometre and the concentration of highways also falls at the higher end at 7.67 per cent.

As in the case of Gujarat, Haryana too benefits from being on the route of the Delhi-Mumbai industrial corridor, the most lucrative in terms of highway traffic. In fact, the top three grossing toll plazas fall on this route – Vadodara in Gujarat, Shahjahanpur in Rajasthan and Gharonda in Haryana.

Sustaining The Highway Journey

In the long term, the government would like to recover a good part of its investment through tolls paid by highway users. Not surprisingly, therefore, toll collections have been rising at an accelerated pace. In the past eight years, toll collections have risen nearly three-fold, from Rs 17,759 crore in 2015-16 to Rs 48,028 crore in 2022-23.

That said, variations in total toll collections, irrespective of the road network and the area of a particular state, may not result in uniform toll collections across the country. This is jeopardising the sustainability of the highways in the long term. This is why, the government would do well to carefully review its plans to expand the country’s highway network, keeping in mind both the desirability as well as the affordability of such infrastructure.