The nationwide 57-day lockdown to fight against the COVID-19 restrict inter and intra-state traffic to essential services which lead to result in a sharp 13 % downfall in toll collections and remittances. According to CRISIL Research, in case, the lockdown is increased for further days the downfall will be even sharp at 17 %. It said, toll collections from build-operate-transfer (BOT) highway projects, and remittances from publicly funded projects would decline in short term.
Due to lockdown traffic on highways declines to 16.5 % this fiscal, which result in the drop down in toll collection.
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, there will only be a gradual return to normalcy.
While construction of new highways is also affected, those constructed and commissioned over the past one year will help reduce the rate of decline in toll collections by more than half.
Over the long term – fiscals 2019-2024, CRISIL Research said it expects toll collections to bounce back to a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 11-12 % on the back of new road construction
