Crisil Research said on Wednesday that a 57-day nationwide lockout caused by the corona in New Delhi would result in a 13 percent drop in toll collection and dispatch. In this case, the lockdown has been extended for weeks one and two, the fall would be even faster at 17 percent.
With the nationwide lockdown to fight the COVID-19 pandemic restricting inter- and intra-state traffic to essential services, toll collections from build-operate-transfer (BOT) highway projects, and remittances from publicly funded projects would decline sharply in the near term, it said.
The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), the nodal agency for the roads sector, had stopped toll collections up to April 20, 2020, after the government imposed the nationwide lockdown on March 25.
Toll collection has restarted since, but there is unlikely to be a V-shaped revival in traffic after the lockdown ends, probably on May 17, the statement said adding, there will only be a gradual return to normalcy.
