NHA doubles its toll on the pocket

For a supplier regularly using a highway for transporting goods between cities, the toll tax is an operating cost necessary to maintain the regular operations of a business. However, when this toll tax is increased within a matter of days, it can inevitably drive the business into a state of loss. For instance, Muhammad Nawaz, who supplies milk from Hyderabad to Karachi, claimed that he paid Rs220 extra within two days. "Toward the end of January, I was charged Rs860 for my Mazda truck at Toll Plaza Hyderabad however, this month, I had to pay Rs1,080 for the same vehicle on the same route," said Nawaz. Similarly, Khushi Muhammad, a resident of Karachi, revealed that he traveled to Hyderabad frequently on his car. "I used to pay Rs370 as toll tax till the end of December, but now I have to pay Rs470. Within two to three days, the toll tax has been increased by Rs100," lamented Muhammad. In the first week of January, the government and opposition members of the Sindh Assembly had jointly passed a resolution in which they expressed their concerns over the increase in toll tax on highways and motorways managed by the NHA, terming it an injustice to the people of the province who were already battling inflation. After the increase in toll tax, a commuter travelling from Karachi to Hyderabad or Sukkur via the highway would have to pay at least Rs2500 per vehicle in toll tax. Simultaneously, other members complained about the poor, accident-prone condition of highways managed by the NHA and the delays in the construction of the Hyderabad-Sukkur Motorway. On the other hand, the National Highway Authority (NHA) has claimed that it spends more money on the repair and maintenance of highways and motorways in the province than it earns through the collection of toll tax. Reportedly, NHA meets all its expenses from its own resources and the revenue generated from toll tax is the organization's largest source of income. In light of this, NHA officials have recently hoped to multiply this revenue by increasing the toll tax rates. In total, 29 toll plazas are already operational across Sindh. NHA's Director of Public Relations Mazhar Hussain told The Express Tribune that the NHA collected a total of Rs6.85 billion in toll tax revenue from Sindh for the financial year 2023-24, while it spent Rs8.9 billion on road maintenance and repair during the same period. "The NHA does not receive funds from the government for the maintenance and repair of roads due to which it depends largely on its own resources. Therefore, in order to maintain the road network spanning 13,600 kilometers across the country, it had to increase the toll tax and number of toll plazas," revealed Hussain, who further disclosed that the NHA hoped to increase its overall revenue from Rs60 billion to Rs110 billion in the current financial year. "The NHA has recently established a new toll plaza near Umerkot in Mirpurkhas district. Under the policy, a toll plaza can be built at a distance of 35 to 60 kilometers on highways. The repair of the Karachi-Hyderabad Motorway will start in February," affirmed the NHA spokesperson. Provincial Minister for Planning and Development Syed Nasir Hussain Shah assured that the Sindh government will place the concerns of the members of the Sindh Assembly before the federal government and recommend that they be resolved immediately. "Not only the members of the assembly but also the common people are worried about the poor condition of the Karachi-Hyderabad Motorway, which needs to be improved. The Sindh government is also concerned about the delay in the construction of the Hyderabad-Sukkur Motorway," claimed Shah.

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