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A very revolutionary and historic change is about to begin in the Indian road transport and highway infrastructure, which will completely change the journey of crores of drivers in the country in the times to come. During the prestigious ‘Global Fintech Fest 2026’ held in Mumbai, the country’s Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari has made a very big and much awaited announcement. He has officially announced that in the coming few months, traditional toll plazas will cease to exist forever on all the National Highways of the country. India is now moving rapidly towards a completely digital, modern and barrier-free toll collection system. The Union Minister has made it clear that this state-of-the-art system will be completely implemented in the entire country by next year i.e. by February-March 2027, after which the old system of stopping at toll or standing in queues during the journey will come to an end. This step of the government is going to prove to be a milestone in the country’s logistics sector, saving time and fuel of the common citizens, which will make the Indian transport system at par with the global level modern system.
The name of this new and state-of-the-art system announced by Union Minister Nitin Gadkari is Multi-Lane Free Flow i.e. MLFF model. It is a completely barrier-free electronic toll collection system, which uses overhead gantries built above the road to identify vehicles and automatically collect toll tax from their accounts. The biggest feature of this entire process is that the vehicles will neither need to stop at the toll booth nor slow down their speed while moving at their normal speed. The Minister clarified that the main objective of bringing this new system is to completely eliminate the process of stopping vehicles or obstructing their movement in the name of toll collection. At present, a huge amount of fuel is wasted due to vehicles stopping and speeding up at toll plazas, and the pollution emitted from vehicle engines also increases. With the introduction of MLFF model, there will be no hindrance in the movement of vehicles, which will lead to huge reduction in fuel consumption and will also provide great relief from the huge operational expenses incurred on operation and maintenance of toll plazas.
Elaborating on the outline and timeline of this ambitious scheme, Nitin Gadkari said during the Fintech Fest that the government has a clear plan to transfer all the toll networks of the country to this modern MLFF model within the next one year. He said that he has given strict instructions to the officials of the concerned departments that the work in this direction should be completed at a fast pace by December 2026. He is confident that by the end of the year, 60% to 70% of the work in the country will be completely completed and by the stipulated time period i.e. February-March 2027, this barrier-free toll plaza system will be effective at the ground level in the entire country. It is noteworthy that this technology has already been successfully tested in the National Capital Region. Earlier in the month of May, Nitin Gadkari had formally inaugurated the country’s first barrier-free tolling system at Mundka-Bakkarwala Toll Plaza on Urban Extension Road-II in New Delhi. Based on the enthusiasm and experiences gained from the success of that project, a historic decision has now been taken to implement this model on all the major national highways of the country in a phased manner.
Undoubtedly, this new technology will not only save the time of passengers, but the country’s economy is also going to get huge direct benefits from it. Highlighting the financial aspects of the MLFF model, the Union Minister said that the current cost of operating a traditional toll plaza is around 12% to 15%, which is expected to reduce to only around 2% to 4% after the implementation of this barrier-free tolling model across the country. This unprecedented reduction will help the country generate direct savings of approximately Rs 6,000 crore to Rs 7,000 crore annually. The Minister reminded that earlier with the introduction of FASTag system, there was a huge reduction in the waiting time at toll plazas and the hassle of cash payment and change transactions was completely eliminated, which brought unprecedented transparency in the system. The government is already getting direct benefits of around Rs 20,000 crore to Rs 25,000 crore annually due to the widespread use of Fastag and the continuous move towards digital tolling. Making a comparison, he said that the increase in government revenue due to the adoption of digital system is providing a strong economic support to the development of the country’s infrastructure.
The figures to what extent the precious time and natural resources of the country’s citizens will be saved by making long queues at toll plazas a history are also shocking. Gadkari informed that due to Fastag and other digital reforms, the waiting time of vehicles at toll plazas has become negligible as compared to earlier. There was a time when the average wait at toll was 12 minutes and on holidays or peak hours this time would increase to 30 minutes. The government has developed a special software to assess the waiting time at every toll plaza, through which monitoring is being done. As a result of all these technological improvements, today about 71 crore hours of valuable time and about 56 crore liters of fuel are being saved every year in the country. The countrymen are saving around Rs 5,250 crore in fuel costs alone, while the economic value of this saved time for passengers has been estimated at around Rs 68,500 crore annually. Thus, when the country completely adopts the MLFF model in the coming year 2027, traveling on Indian roads will not only become completely smooth, fast and stress-free, but it will also write a new and golden chapter in environmental protection and growth of the national economy.