Business Standard reported on 1 May 2026 that India had begun its first barrier-less highway toll collection operations with the launch of a multi-lane free flow system at the Chorayasi Toll Plaza on the Surat-Bharuch section of NH-48 in Gujarat. The article described the rollout as a new tolling model in which vehicles need not stop at conventional booths.
The system uses Automatic Number Plate Recognition to identify vehicles as they pass through the tolling zone. By reading number plates through cameras, it removes physical toll plazas that create waiting time, even after FASTag reduced average waiting to less than 47 seconds. The report said the automatic deduction model is part of Union Minister Nitin Gadkari's push for seamless highway operations and for plugging leakages of nearly ₹10,000 crore from national highway toll collections.
Trials for the same technology are under way at Mundka on Delhi's Urban Extension Road-2, and that stretch is expected to become completely barrier-less later. Senior government officials said tenders are planned for around 200 toll plazas in the current financial year. The broader target is about 1,200 toll plazas and nationwide rollout.
The report also noted revenue risks from defective or inoperative FASTags. The Centre has changed rules to define unpaid user fee, and users with such dues will not get no-objection and fitness certificates. The highways ministry expects lower travel time, decongestion, better fuel efficiency, lower emissions and less human intervention. Gadkari had told Parliament that an artificial-intelligence-driven highway management system would be rolled out by the end of 2026. The Economic Survey 2025-26 projects rollout across all four-lane-plus National Highways and high-speed corridors by March 2029.