Toll tax would not be levied at collection points that are located within 60 km of one another, said Nitin Gadkari, the Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways, while replying to a discussion in the Parliament on March 22.
The relaxation will come into effect after a period of three months, Gadkari clarified.
"Toll collection points that fall within 60 km of another toll booth will be closed in the next 3 months," Gadkari said in Lok Sabha, the Parliament's lower chamber while responding to the Opposition's concerns related to the budgetary allocation for road transport and highways.
Gadkari also told the House that the Delhi-Amritsar section of the Delhi-Amritsar-Katra expressway will be completed by end of 2022, thereby bringing down the commutation time between the two cities to four hours.
The minister further claimed that the distance between Srinagar and Mumbai will be slashed to 20 hours following the completion of the Delhi-Amritsar-Katra expressway.
In Jammu & Kashmir alone, projects worth Rs 7,000 crores are underway, the minister said. "About 1,000 people are working inside the Zojila tunnel at -8 degrees celsius," he added.
A day earlier, Gadkari received praise from unexpected quarters in the Lok Sabha, as some Opposition MPs lauded the work undertaken by his ministry.
“Personally, I would like to compliment ministers of this ministry for the good work they have done all these years,” Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) lawmaker from Uttar Pradesh, Danish Ali, said.
Similarly, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) MP from Kerala, A M Ariff, thanked Gadkari for ensuring a time-bound development of national highways in the southern coastal state.
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