No More Toll Plazas? Gadkari Vows Barrier-Free Travel Within A Year

India will roll out barrier-less, free-flow electronic tolling nationwide within a year using FASTag with ANPR and AI, ending stops at toll plazas.

The current system of toll plazas on national highways will be replaced by a fully electronic, barrier-free toll collection model within a year, Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari told the Lok Sabha on Thursday.

While FASTag has already reduced waiting times at many toll plazas, vehicles still need to slow down or stop at barriers for validation.

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Responding during Question Hour, Gadkari said the new toll framework is designed to allow uninterrupted movement of vehicles, eliminating physical stoppages at toll booths. Pilot deployment of the system has already begun at 10 locations and will be expanded nationwide over the next 12 months.

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“This toll system will end. There will be no one to stop you in the name of toll. Within a year, an electronic toll collection will be implemented across the country,” Gadkari said.

How barrier-less tolling will actually work?

The upcoming setup will be based on the Multi-Lane Free Flow (MLFF) Electronic Toll Collection model. The system combines Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) cameras powered by AI analytics with existing RFID-based FASTag technology. Vehicles passing under overhead gantries will be identified automatically, and toll charges will be deducted without requiring any reduction in speed or lane changes.

Gadkari said requests for proposals have already been issued and finalised for implementing the FASTag-ANPR barrier-free tolling system at selected plazas. Further rollout across other toll points will be carried out in phases, depending on the performance and results from these initial installations.

The development builds on India’s National Electronic Toll Collection (NETC) programme, operated by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI). Launched nationwide in 2016, NETC provides a unified, interoperable platform for toll payments using FASTag. FASTag is an RFID sticker affixed to the windshield of vehicles, linked to a bank account or prepaid wallet. As vehicles pass through toll lanes equipped with scanners, the toll amount is deducted automatically, and drivers receive transaction notifications.

Why are physical toll plazas being phased out?

While FASTag has already reduced waiting times at many toll plazas, vehicles still need to slow down or stop at barriers for validation. The MLFF system aims to remove these physical checkpoints entirely, helping to cut congestion, improve average travel speeds, and eliminate bottlenecks, especially on high-traffic corridors.

Once fully implemented, the new barrier-less toll model is expected to become the standard method of fee collection on India’s national highway network.