New Delhi: In what comes as a welcome windfall for commercial vehicle owners and daily highway commuters alike, the government has announced a sharp cut—up to 50%—in toll rates for National Highway stretches packed with structures like tunnels, bridges, flyovers and elevated corridors.

Until now, tolls on these structured stretches were charged at an eye-watering rate—10 times the normal user fee—to help recover the massive construction costs. But a new notification from the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, issued on Tuesday, has changed the game with a simplified formula that promises big savings.

Here’s how it works: for a National Highway section dotted with structures, the toll will now be based on the lower of two calculated lengths—either 10 times the length of the structures plus the net road length, or five times the total length of the section.

Take, for instance, a 40 km section with 30 km of elevated structures. Previously, tolls were calculated on the longer figure, but under the new method, the chargeable length drops to 200 km instead of 310 km—translating to significantly lower tolls.

A Ministry official explained: “On routes like the Delhi-Dehradun expressway, which has long elevated stretches including a 15-km wildlife corridor, commercial vehicles could see tolls drop by as much as half. The same relief applies to busy elevated highways like Nashik Phata-Khed, Danapur-Bihta, and the heavily structured 28.5 km Dwarka Expressway.”

The revised toll structure will kick in immediately for new toll plazas, while existing public-funded toll points will apply it from the next scheduled fee revision. Concessionaire-run toll plazas will adopt it once their current contracts end.

The impact is particularly sweet for commercial vehicle operators, who are typically charged four to five times the rate paid by private car owners—who, incidentally, also have the option to buy a yearly pass for Rs 3,000 to soften the toll blow.

A one-way car trip, for example, will now cost Rs 292 at Rs 1.46 per km as per the National Highways Fee (Determination of Rates and Collection) Rules, 2008. The benefit for larger vehicles, though, is even greater.

As truckers, bus operators and taxi fleets gear up to count the savings, the new rule is being hailed as a rare but welcome detour from rising road costs—proving that sometimes, even on Indian highways, shortcuts really do pay off.