Barrier-free tolling on national highways by December, says minister Nitin Gadkari

New Delhi: Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari on Friday announced that barrier-free tolling on several national highways across the country will be implemented by December.

Addressing the second edition of the Logistics Shakti Summit & Awards 2026, he said the government is keen to reduce logistics costs by providing a seamless travel experience on highways.

The new system will enable barrier-free tolling using integrated technologies, including Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) with AI analytics and RFID-based Electronic Toll Collection (FASTag).

Under this system, vehicles will be charged based on identification through high-performance ANPR cameras and FASTag readers, without needing to stop at toll plazas.

In case of non-compliance, e-notices will be issued to violators. Non-payment of these notices may result in suspension of the FASTag and other penalties under the VAHAN system.

The new system is likely to be implemented initially on four-lane or wider highways and expressways.

At present, around 46,000 km out of the total 1.46 lakh km National Highway network are four-lane or more. Around 2,500 km of highways are high-speed corridors.

As per the proposal of the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has set a target to roll out barrier-free tolling across 10,000 km over the next two years.

An NHAI official said that barrier-free tolling will involve multiple technologies, including automated number plate readers (ANPR), high-resolution cameras installed at entry and exit points, satellite-based tolling (GNSS), and the Multi-Lane Free Flow (MLFF) system.

ANPR-based tolling has already been piloted on the Delhi-Meerut Expressway.

In the MLFF system, there will be no physical toll plazas. Instead, field equipment and sensors mounted on gantries will capture information from passing vehicles. This data will be transmitted to the electronic toll payment system for automatic deduction of the user fee from the FASTag account.

Gadkari also referred to a recent report prepared by IIT Chennai, IIT Kanpur, and IIM Bangalore, which revealed that India’s construction of expressways and economic corridors has helped reduce the country’s logistics cost to 10 per cent from 16 per cent earlier.

The Minister added that logistics costs stand at 12 per cent in the US, 12 per cent in European countries, and 8-10 per cent in China.