No More Tolls for EVs: Maharashtra Finally Announces Free Passage On Three Highways
A good news for all electric vehicle owners from Maharashtra. It has recently been announced that from August 22, 2025, electric vehicle owners will not be paying any tolls on three key routes across the state. These routes include the Mumbai-Pune Expressway, the Mumbai-Nagpur Samruddhi Expressway, and the Atal Setu or the Mumbai Trans Harbour Link. The original announcement was made back in April of this year. However, the toll operators were collecting the toll from EV owners despite the announcement.
Electric vehicles in Maharashtra will now not pay any toll
As per the latest circular, the exemption from toll will cover specific categories of electric vehicles. These include private electric cars, passenger electric cars, electric state transport buses, and urban public transport electric vehicles. It has been mentioned that electric goods carriers will still be required to pay tolls.
Another major highlight of the new circular is that apart from Atal Setu, the Mumbai-Pune Expressway, and the Mumbai-Nagpur Samruddhi Expressway, other state and national highways across Maharashtra will charge electric vehicles only 50 percent toll instead of full charges. As mentioned, the government of Maharashtra exempted tolls for electric vehicles back in April 2025 when it announced the 2025 EV Policy.
However, the toll operators continued charging electric vehicle owners until August 22. Due to this inconsistency in following the EV policy toll, many electric vehicle owners were getting frustrated, and it caused a number of disputes. Now, with the latest notification, all toll booths have been officially reminded to comply with the 2025 EV Policy of the state of Maharashtra.
Atal Setu and its high toll charges
This new enforcement from the Maharashtra government will now benefit the EV owners who drive frequently on the Atal Setu or the Mumbai Trans Harbour Link. The reason behind this is that the Atal Setu corridor is one of the costliest routes in terms of tolls. Now, with the new ruling, EV owners in Mumbai will save a lot of money by avoiding paying toll on this route.
Will this rule push EV sales in Maharashtra?
The main aim of the government of Maharashtra with this EV Policy is to ensure that electric vehicle adoption in the state increases significantly. The toll waiver for EVs will increase the satisfaction of the existing EV owners and will also encourage more new car buyers to choose electric vehicles over internal combustion engine vehicles.
Currently, Tata Motors, Mahindra Automotive, and MG Motor India have a number of affordable electric vehicles that will benefit from this new rule. The government of Maharashtra has stated that this exemption aligns with its mission of promoting cleaner mobility solutions, reducing fossil fuel dependency, and incentivizing EV adoption through such reliefs.
Will other states follow this?
At the moment, there are no reports on whether other states will follow the lead that Maharashtra has taken with the exemption of tolls for EVs. Most likely, other states will be closely noting the increase in sales of electric vehicles in the state of Maharashtra and then take decisions based on the figures. Presently, the overall EV penetration in India is at 7.8 percent, which is expected to increase to 30 percent by 2030.