Tolling at Gharaunda on Delhi-Chandigarh highway to become barrier-free

NEW DELHI: The country’s first barrier-free tolling system (Multi-Lane Free Flow or MLFF) will be rolled out at Gharaunda toll plaza on Delhi-Chandigarh highway and at Choryasi plaza on NH-48 in Gujarat, with the Indian Highway Management Company Ltd (IHMCL) under NHAI signing agreements with ICICI Bank for the purpose.

Six more toll plazas, including five in Delhi and the National Capital Region (NCR), are likely to see the rollout of MLFF in the next two months. The five plazas in NCR set to introduce MLFF – at UER-II, Dwarka E-way and Pachgaon, Shahajahanpur, Manoharpur and Daulatpur on NH-48 – in the next two months will make travel from Haryana and Delhi to Jaipur seamless.

Sources said the toll rates for UER-II and Dwarka E-way are being finalised.

MLFF aims to provide highway users a seamless and barrier-free tolling experience. The system works through a combination of high-performance RFID readers and automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) cameras, which scan FASTags and vehicle registration numbers to enable electronic transactions. Thus, vehicles won’t need to stop at toll plazas, easing congestion and saving time.

NHAI officials said the new tolling mechanism will be introduced at 25 NH plazas during this year and the process to identify them has started. NHAI chairman Santosh Kumar Yadav said, “By leveraging technology, it will establish the foundation for a more efficient, transparent, and user-friendly tolling ecosystem, aligned with our vision of technology-driven transformation in NH operations and will pave the way for its adoption nationwide.”