The revised toll charges for motorists on national highways across the country have come to effect from Monday, an official said.

The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has hiked the toll charges by an average of 5 per cent.

The hike is part of NHAI's annual exercise where the state-owned body calculates new rates factoring in several parameters, the senior NHAI official told PTI.

Every year, it is implemented from April 1 but this year the implementation was deferred due to general elections. The average hike this time was 5 per cent. The revised user fee has been implemented from today, the official said.

From Monday, motorists using national highways/expressways will have to shell out more money for their road journeys.

"The fuel costs were already high. The increased toll rates will make road journeys costlier for people," said Ankur Saxena, an advertising professional who frequently travels through Delhi-Lucknow route.

The toll fee is revised annually, taking into accounts the changes in the wholesale price index (CPI)-based inflation.

There are around 855 user fee plazas on the national highway network on which user fee is levied as per the National Highways Fee (Determination of Rates and Collection) Rules, 2008.

Out of these, around 675 are public-funded fee plazas and 180 are operated by concessionaires.

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