The National Highways Authority of India(NHAI) has collected Rs 53,536.48 crore from 2020-21 till November 23, 2023 as user fee at toll plazas on national highways(NH) through FASTag, road transport and highways minister Nitin Gadkari said in response to a question in Rajya Sabha on Wednesday.
According to the response, Rs 5974.72 crore was collected in 2020-21, Rs 11,303.24 crore in 2021-22, Rs 18,843.36 crore in 2022-23 and Rs 17415.16 crore in 2023-24 till November 23, 2023.
In a separate response, road minister Nitin Gadkari said a total expenditure of Rs 4.10 lakh crore has been made under the Bharatmala Pariyojana Phase I as on October 31, 2023, attributing the difference in actual project cost and normative cost to increase in cost of raw material, increased land acquisition cost, construction of high speed corridors and increase in GST rates.
According to the minister, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) approved Phase 1 of Bharatmala Pariyojana entailing development of 34,800 km of national highway corridors with the total outlay of Rs 5.35 lakh crore in 2017.
“This was based on normative cost and not on the basis of detailed project report (DPRs) of the national highways proposed under Bharatmala Pariyojana. DPRs were prepared subsequently and approval of competent authority was obtained for each project,” he added.
The minister further said that there has been no diversion of funds from other schemes in the execution of BPP-I. “Certain BPP-I projects were earlier planned under other schemes viz., Externally Aided Project(EAP), National Highways Original works NH(O), and SARDP scheme, which were subsequently prioritized under BPP-I as per the network planning,” he clarified.