Small cars, school buses to be exempted from toll in Maharashtra

The Maharashtra government will frame a policy shortly under which small cars will be exempted from paying tax at most toll booths across the state while the "burden" of paying toll will be passed on to heavy vehicles.

"We are in the process of framing a new toll policy, under which small vehicles will be exempted from paying toll, including newly built roads, by the Public Works Department (PWD) and Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC)," Maharashtra Public Works Department Minister Chandrakant Patil said here.

"While the toll burden will be passed on to heavy vehicles, we also have to ensure that it is not a big burden on them," he said.

Patil said that a digital mechanism will be adopted before awarding road contracts, where the government will calculate the average number of vehicles plying on a particular stretch of road to avoid getting inflated bills from contractors.

"Once we know what kind of traffic is there on a particular stretch of road, we will be able to make an estimate of the tenure for which we will need to levy toll. Thus we will not end up paying more than the recovery amount," he said.

Patil said that school buses will be exempt from toll at 53 booths across the state and the government has issued a notification on it today.

"We will send the notification to toll booths today and once they receive it, school buses will be exempted immediately," he said.

Patil also said that it is impossible to exempt vehicles from paying toll on the Mumbai-Pune expressway in the near