What a toll pass means for your drive on national highways
The Centre will roll out an '
Annual Toll Pass
' (ATP) for private car owners that will let you drive through
toll plazas
without having to stop and pay - either by cash or through
FASTag
- on
national highways
and expressways that are managed by
NHAI
(National Highways Authority of India). The pass does not replace FASTag but is a parallel system in which you make a one-time payment and accounting is done on the basis of trips you make, not the balance on your card. Only private cars will be eligible for ATPs, not taxis or any other commercial vehicle.
When can you get an ATP?
NHAI will start issuing ATPs from August 15. An ATP can be bought for ₹3,000 and will be for a year from the date of purchase. Within this period, an ATP holder will be eligible for 200 trips on the NHAI network. Once the trip limit is breached, you can renew an ATP for a year. Alternatively, you can pay through FASTag. Buying an ATP won't be mandatory to drive on the NHAI network. Those who want to keep using FASTag can continue to do so.
How does ATP define a trip?
Crossing one toll plaza will count as one trip on an ATP. Say you're driving from Delhi to Chandigarh or Delhi to Jaipur on NHs. Every time you cross a toll plaza, it counts as a trip. So, if you've crossed four toll plazas, your trip count on the ATP is four. This is how ATP will work on an open tolling system, which is any highway other than access-controlled ones.For highways that have a closed tolling system, which means you pay only at point of exit, the journey will count as one trip. For example, on roads such as
Delhi-Mumbai Expressway
, Bengaluru-Mysuru Expressway or Eastern Peripheral Expressway, if you're travelling end to end, it's counted as one trip. However, if you exit midway and re-enter the road at another point, the trip count will increase to two.
Do you save if you have an ATP?
If you are a frequent inter-state traveller, an ATP will be cheaper. For example, you now pay a total toll of around ₹325 to travel one-way between Delhi and Chandigarh on NH-44, at four toll plazas.
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