New Delhi: Farmers’ protests led to a loss of Rs 2,731.32 crore in toll revenue since October 2020, with Haryana suffering the most, Minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari informed Parliament on Wednesday.
“Initially, toll plazas in Punjab were made non-operational by the agitating farmers in October 2020. This spread to the neighbouring states of Haryana and Rajasthan,” the minister said in reply to a question by MP Anil Agarwal as to how much toll revenue loss the agitation caused to the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI).
The government said 60 to 65 national highway toll plazas were affected due to the agitation, resulting in the cumulative loss of Rs 2,731.32 crore. “The loss to public-funded toll plazas has been Rs 1,381.03 crore. Privately managed toll plazas in the BOT (build-operate-transfer) and OMT (operate-maintain-transfer) model amounts to Rs 1,350.29 crore,” the government said.
Toll plazas in Haryana suffered the maximum revenue loss of Rs 1,319.61 crore followed by Punjab (Rs 1,269.42 crore) and Rajasthan (Rs 142.29 crore).
65 NHs affected due to agitation
Rs 36.87 cr losses incurred by Railways
1,879 trains obstructed