The collection of toll at all toll plazas across India has been temporarily suspended, Union Minister of Road Transport & Highways Nitin Gadkari informed through Twitter.
In a series of tweets, the minister said that the move would “reduce inconvenience to the supply of emergency services” and also “save critical time”. This tweet comes after the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) has asked the road transport and highways ministry whether it should continue with collecting toll after a sharp drop in traffic triggered by the outbreak of the coronavirus, people familiar with the matter earlier told Moneycontrol.
According to NHAI data, toll collections through the electronic payment system FASTags, which account for 70 percent of the total collections, dropped by 50 percent in the past week. The total number of toll transactions also reduced by more than half.