Barrier-free Tolling Gathers Pace, 6 Plazas Process 1.1 Cr Vehicles in First 3 Months

India's shift away from physical boom barriers at highway toll plazas is beginning to show measurable results, according to a report by Crisil Intelligence. The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has set a target of making multilane free flow (MLFF) tolling — a system that lets vehicles pass through toll points without stopping — the standard across national highways, and the first phase of the transition is already operational.

As of August 1, 2026, six MLFF toll plazas were functional out of 17 proposed under the initial phase, with 11 having been awarded to operators, the report, titled "Breaking barriers: Transition to MLFF tolling will amp up highway travel efficiency, said. Since the first plaza went live at Choryasi in Gujarat on May 1, 2026, the six operational sites have together processed over 110 lakh vehicle transactions and collected more than Rs 147 crore in toll revenue.

Choryasi recorded the highest revenue collection among the six plazas, at over Rs 51 crore, while Mundka in Delhi handled the highest vehicle volume, with more than 41.5 lakh transactions. The other operational plazas are located in Daulatpura, Gharaunda, Manoharpura and Shahjahanpur, spread across Rajasthan and Haryana.

Electronic toll collection (ETC), under which fees are deducted automatically from a vehicle's FASTag account, accounted for roughly 94% of total revenue at these plazas. Between May and July 2026, ETC brought in Rs 138.4 crore against Rs 9.2 crore collected through e-notices — a penalty mechanism used when a transaction fails due to FASTag issues, unregistered vehicles or tampered number plates. Users served an e-notice get 72 hours to pay before the toll amount is doubled. As of July 2026, about 10% of vehicles passing through operational MLFF plazas had triggered payment failures, resulting in e-notices, with roughly 10.5 lakh such notices issued in total.

The report also noted strong uptake of the annual FASTag pass, launched in August 2025, which was being used by about 52% of private vehicles at MLFF plazas — some 44.2 lakh vehicles.

Beyond the immediate numbers, Crisil Intelligence cited government estimates on the broader payoff of the transition. The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways expects MLFF tolling to cut operational costs by Rs 5,000–6,000 crore a year and save around 250 crore litres of fuel annually, translating into a reduction of nearly 81,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions by curbing vehicle idling and congestion at toll points. Once fully rolled out nationally, the system is projected to benefit more than 450 crore vehicle passages through national highway toll plazas every year.

NHAI has already invited bids to extend MLFF tolling to 104 additional plazas across Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Gujarat and Rajasthan. Taken together with the plazas already awarded or operational, this would bring the total to 121 MLFF sites — enough, the report said, to replace 10–11% of the more than 1,150 physical barrier toll plazas currently active on India's national highways.

The report flagged risks that come with removing physical barriers, including revenue leakage from payment failures, inaccurate vehicle identification, system downtime and tampered or invalid tags and number plates. To address these, it called for high-speed automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) cameras, vehicle detection systems, stronger e-notice enforcement, and integration with the VAHAN vehicle registry for authentication, along with resilient IT infrastructure and periodic system audits to keep operations uninterrupted.