Haven't paid e-challans or toll dues? You could lose highway access
Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. NEW DELHI : Motorists with pending e-challans or unpaid toll dues may lose access to highways under proposed changes to motor vehicle legislation that the Centre is likely to announce during the budget session of Parliament, according to two government officials close to the discussions.
The Union road ministry's proposed tweaks to the Motor Vehicles Act (MVA), 1988, also seek to empower enforcement agencies to detain vehicles at toll plazas for evading user charges. Officials believe restricting access to India’s 45,428-kilometre toll road network will nudge motorists towards greater compliance and improve safety on Indian roads, which has the dubious distinction of recording the world’s highest number of accidents and fatalities.
According to government data, around 500,000 road accidents occurred in 2024-25, resulting in about 180,000 deaths. “We have proposed several changes in the MVA with the sole aim of changing driving behaviour, ensuring the rule of law, and making Indian roads safer for everyone.
The amendments are not coercive but only push road users towards disciplined driving and encourage compliance towards user fees," said one of the government officials cited above, on the condition of anonymity. The government is pursuing these changes to meet the UN Sustainable Development Goal of halving global deaths and injuries from road traffic accidents by 2030.
Besides, e-challans have a poor settlement rate, with only over a third of the 400 million e-challans worth ₹61,000 crore issued between 2015 and 2025 being collected, according to the ministry of road, transport, and highways (MoRTH). On 20 January, the government notified the Central Motor Vehicles (Second Amendment)
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