Shimla: The Himachal Pradesh government on Wednesday reduced permit fees for private vehicles on Shimla's sealed and restricted roads and, for the first time, allowed six-month permits.
The state government promulgated the Shimla Road Users and Pedestrians (Public Safety and Convenience) Amendment Ordinance, 2026 to facilitate private vehicle owners in Shimla town, an official statement said.
Vehicles are not allowed on sealed and restricted roads without a permit. Most of these roads provide access to the heart of the city -- the Mall Road -- from different parts of Shimla.
Some of the sealed and restricted roads include Navbahar to Ridge, Chhota Shimla to the Mall and Ridge, IGMC to Ridge, AG Office to CTO, and Boileauganj to Vidhan Sabha via the Indian Institute of Advanced Study (IIAS).
Under the ordinance, the annual permit fee for a private vehicle on a sealed road has been reduced from ₹15,000 to ₹8,000, while the annual fee for a restricted road has been cut from ₹5,000 to ₹3,000.
For the first time, vehicle owners can also opt for a six-month permit. The fee has been fixed at ₹4,500 per private vehicle for a sealed road and ₹2,000 for a restricted road.
Until now, only annual permits were available, forcing vehicle owners to pay for a full year even if they required access for a shorter period.
The move comes months after the state government sharply increased permit charges during the Budget session, raising the fee for entry on sealed roads from ₹2,500 to ₹15,000. It had also made permits mandatory for lawyers using the sealed roads, triggering widespread protests by the legal fraternity.
On June 2, traffic on the Cart Road (Circular Road), the lifeline of Shimla, came to a standstill for more than three hours as hundreds of lawyers staged a protest outside the Secretariat against the mandatory permit requirement and the steep hike in fees.
The advocates had opposed the government's decision to bar vehicles from entering sealed roads without a valid permit and objected to the steep increase in charges. Earlier, lawyers were allowed to use the Chhota Shimla-High Court road and the Boileauganj-Vidhan Sabha route via IIAS on payment of a nominal fee
