MoRTH: Annual local toll passes notified, from 1 November

The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has notified concessional local toll passes costing Rs 1,500 or Rs 3,000 a year for eligible vehicle owners living within 20 kilometres of a toll plaza, effective 1 November 2026. The ministry’s notification, dated 26 October 2026, makes eligibility conditional on the vehicle’s non-commercial registration, a valid functional FASTag and the absence of a service road or alternative road available for use.

Under notification G.S.R. 917(E), the lower annual charge applies where the toll plaza is outside municipal or local town limits. The higher charge applies where the plaza is within those limits. The location of the plaza, rather than a separate classification of the resident’s home as rural or urban, determines the applicable rate.

The concession is restricted to the specified plaza. It is not a pass for travel across the national highway network, and the notification excludes national highways and expressways using a closed user fee collection system.

Annual option alongside the monthly pass

The ministry has introduced the concession through the National Highways Fee (Determination of Rates and Collection) (Fifth Amendment) Rules, 2026. Issued under Section 9 of the National Highways Act, 1956, the amendment changes Rule 9 of the fee rules, which govern the determination and collection of national highway tolls.

The new provision gives an eligible owner a choice between the monthly pass under the existing sub-rule (3) and the Concessional Local Pass. It does not replace the monthly option or require existing monthly-pass holders to switch.

The Times of India reported on 26 October that the existing monthly pass costs Rs 360, equivalent to Rs 4,320 for a full year. The ministry’s new notification does not restate that monthly charge. The newspaper’s annual comparison is based on purchasing monthly passes throughout the year, rather than the cost of occasional toll payments.

The amendment inserts the concession as sub-rule (3A). According to the notification, the existing sub-rules (3A), (3B) and (3C) are renumbered as (3B), (3C) and (3D), respectively, to accommodate the new provision.

The notification also provides for rate revisions on 1 April. Its English text says the annual rates “may be revised” by the Central Government, while the Hindi text uses mandatory wording, meaning that the rates will be revised. Neither version specifies the amount of a future revision or a formula for calculating it.

Residence alone does not establish eligibility

The ministry’s new provision ties the pass to ownership of a vehicle registered for non-commercial purposes. Living near a plaza is therefore not, by itself, sufficient: the ownership, registration and FASTag conditions also apply.

Indian Highways Management Company Limited, which implements the FASTag programme, describes FASTag in its Frequently Asked Questions as a windscreen-mounted tag that uses radio-frequency identification to enable toll payments from a linked account. The ministry’s requirement is for a tag that is both valid and functional.

The alternative-road restriction is a separate test. The notification bars issuance where a service road or alternative road is available for use by the driver, owner or person in charge of the vehicle. It does not specify a maximum detour, a road-quality threshold or a procedure for resolving disagreements over whether such a route is available.

For the exclusion concerning a “closed user fee collection system”, the notification names the tolling arrangement but does not define it or list the affected roads. It also does not provide a plaza-by-plaza eligibility schedule.

Earlier digital rollout covered monthly local passes

A separate National Highways Authority of India initiative provides context for how local passes have been moving online, but it predates the new annual concession.

In a press release dated 20 July 2026, NHAI announced a digital Local Pass facility on its Rajmargyatra mobile app. It said the first facility had been introduced at the Mundka-Bakkarwala Toll Plaza on Urban Extension Road-II in Delhi, with other plazas to follow in the coming months. That release announced a planned rollout, not completed nationwide availability.

The July announcement described a monthly product allowing eligible residents unlimited travel through the respective plaza during the month. NHAI said the digital process removed the need to visit the plaza and physically submit supporting documents.

According to NHAI, the facility uses consent-based connections with DigiLocker and VAHAN to retrieve verified address, vehicle-number and linked-FASTag details. It also uses geographical information system-based verification, a location-based check, to establish eligibility. NHAI said the process could be completed within a few minutes.

The authority also announced its MargMitra Help Centre within Rajmargyatra. NHAI said the service could answer queries about annual and local passes, route complaints to the relevant department and allow users to track their complaints or appeal an unsatisfactory resolution. The July release said users could type or speak their queries, feedback or grievances in any of 22 Indian languages.

The July announcement does not establish that the newly notified annual concession is available through the same digital process. The October notification sets the commencement date, charges and eligibility conditions, but does not identify an application portal, prescribe supporting documents or explain how an existing monthly pass would be handled when its holder chooses the annual option.