No free toll agreement; statement attributed to Nitin Gadkari is false

The message claims that passengers can ask for a fee agreement at the toll booth plaza and not pay the tax if they return within 12 hours.

"Whenever you pay at a tollbooth, they ask you whether you wish to pay for a single trip or roundtrip. Tell them that you want to pay for 12 hours. If you come back within 12 hours, you don't have to pay a toll. The time is mentioned on ticket stamps. The administration makes lakhs of rupees by cheating the citizens due to a lack of awareness of this rule. Please spread awareness and inform others: Nitin Gadkari (sic)," the message reads

FACT CHECK:

NewsMeter checked online for reports on such a statement being made by Nitin Gadkari but found none. No official statement supporting the claim either on the website of the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways or on its social media handles was found.

However, we did find similar posts from 2017 being circulated on social media, indicating that the message is not recent. Nonetheless, in December 2018 the official Twitter handle of the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways refuted the viral claim. It wrote that the statement has been falsely attributed to Gadkari.

The tweet carries a press release that mentions that the toll rates are governed by the notified rules as stated in the Gazette of India Notification of Ministry of Road Transport and Highways. (View for base rates).

In 2018, an HMDA official confirmed to Deccan Chronicle that the validity of a single trip slip ends as the vehicle crosses the toll plaza and that there is no slip for fee agreement for 12 hours in NHAI.

Evidently, the claim that passengers can ask for a fee agreement for 12 hours in NHAI and not pay toll tax if returned within 12 hours is false. This statement was not made by Nitin Gadkari either.