India mandates barrier-free tolling on future national highways
Highway payments shift from physical booths toward automated digital enforcement
Overview
India plans to let vehicles pass under on future national highways instead of stopping at toll booths. requires this system for new projects and some ongoing work. Plazas can have no more than eight tolling lanes. readers, number-plate cameras and will identify vehicles and charge their accounts. A Mumb pilot began on May 11, 2026. Systems are also being installed at Choryasi, Mundka, Gharaunda, Manoharpura, Daulatpura and other plazas. The government wants national highways covered by March 2027. Contracts cover 17 plazas, and five are already operating. The change may cut queues, unpd tolls and land needs, while creating work for tolling, camera, software and road companies. But drivers with faulty s, unreadable plates or low balances may receive and face disputes over wrong charges. Faster travel and lower building costs could bring payment flures, poor plate reading and harsher penalties for drivers who cannot comply.
Timeline
NHAI adopted FASTag and ANPR for barrier-free toll identification
NHAI's MLFF model combines -based FASTag with automatic number-plate recognition and to identify moving vehicles and charge tolls without requiring them to stop. The sources do not fully establish the described fallback-enforcement process for every vehicle without a valid FASTag.
NHAI capped future toll plazas at eight lanes and replaced booth expansion with gantry capacity
NHAI required future toll plazas to have no more than eight tolling lanes while increasing the number of vehicles each lane can process. Smaller physical plazas can reduce land acquisition and congestion caused by large booth complexes. Costs and procurement will shift toward , high-performance RFID readers, ANPR cameras, connectivity and AI-supported analytics.
NHAI required MLFF tolling in future national highway projects and eligible ongoing construction
made multi-lane free-flow tolling mandatory for future National Highway projects, including eligible projects already under construction. The design uses gantry-mounted RFID readers, cameras and supporting systems to identify vehicles in motion and deduct fees through . The mandate moves adoption upstream into highway design instead of relying only on retrofits.
The government set March 2027 as the target for barrier-free tolling across national highways
The road transport ministry set a national deadline of March 2027 for removing conventional toll barriers from national highways. The target turned from a limited technology rollout into a time-bound implementation programme. The policy was also presented as a way to improve traffic movement and reduce collection losses.
NHAI awarded MLFF systems at 17 fee plazas and put five locations into operation
The reported covered MLFF systems at 17 , with five locations already live. The award shifted the market from isolated demonstrations toward a repeatable operating model for tolling equipment, cameras, connectivity and software. It also created additional opportunities for infrastructure and technology providers serving multiple highway regions.
NHAI expanded live MLFF tolling to Mundka, Manoharpura and Daulatpura
NHAI reported operational systems at Mundka in Delhi and at Manoharpura and Daulatpura in Rajasthan, alongside Choryasi and Gharaunda. The geographically dispersed deployments showed that MLFF was moving beyond a single pilot into a phased multi-region rollout. Users were expected to maintain a functional FASTag with sufficient balance to avoid .
The government introduced an MLFF pilot at a Delhi toll plaza
The government introduced barrier-free MLFF tolling at the Mundka-Bakkarwala toll plaza on Delhi's . The system used gantry-based identification and FASTag collection so vehicles could pass without stopping at conventional barriers.
NHAI launched barrier-free tolling at Choryasi on the Mumbai-Delhi highway
NHAI introduced an operational MLFF system at Choryasi on the Surat-Bharuch section of . Vehicles passed beneath overhead equipment while sensors and cameras identified them and processed tolls electronically. The launch marked one of the first prominent deployments in the national rollout.
NHAI began operating MLFF tolling at Gharaunda on NH-44
NHAI started a rollout at Gharaunda on the Panipat-Jalandhar section. Overhead gantries, sensors and cameras identified moving vehicles and deducted fees through FASTag without requiring a booth stop. The deployment provided an operating model for wider national use.
India made FASTag mandatory for most highway vehicles and expanded electronic toll collection
The mandate established as the digital base for collecting highway user fees without cash handling at conventional booths. RFID tags linked vehicles to toll accounts, creating the identification and payment infrastructure later used by barrier-free systems. The model still generally required vehicles to slow or stop at plazas.