Toll revenue growth slows, may fall short of FY25 goal

India's highway toll collection growth is slowing and may fall short of the projected ₹70,000 crore in the current financial year, according to two persons aware of the development, mirroring the slowdown in the economy.

- Subhash Narayan

While new highway alignments and a rise in the number of toll stations may take this income to around ₹60,000 crore in FY25, but the actual growth will ease to a single digit against more than 40% and 16% seen in FY23 and FY24, respectively, the first among the two persons quoted said on the condition of anonymity.

India targets to more than double the toll revenue to ₹1.3 trillion by 2030. Lower revenue reflects muted highway traffic growth, indicating cooling business activity. India Ratings and Research projects the aggregate toll road revenue growth to moderate to 5.5-6% in FY25 from 12% in the previous year. The high-frequency indicator mirrors India's gross domestic product (GDP) growth falling to the lowest in seven quarters at 5.4% in July-September.

The slower pace of growth was evident in the first half of FY25. Toll revenue in Q1 and Q2 grew 3.8% and 4.8% on-year—the cumulative growth in the first half stood at 4.3% over a year earlier.