MLFF vs FASTag lane tolling: how barrier-free tolling works on India's highways

How does a FASTag plaza lane work today?

FASTag is a passive RFID (radio frequency identification) sticker on the windscreen, linked to a prepaid or bank account. IHMCL (Indian Highways Management Company Limited), the NHAI company that runs the National Electronic Toll Collection (NETC) programme, says the system follows the EPC Gen-2, ISO 18000-6C standard. A 2 November 2017 notification, G.S.R. 1361(E), made FASTag mandatory on M and N category vehicles made or sold from 1 December 2017.

At the plaza, each lane is its own small system. IHMCL's 2020 tender for plaza ETC equipment lists, per lane: an RFID transceiver on the canopy, a toll lane controller, automatic vehicle classification (AVC) with loops and sensors, a licence plate camera, an incident camera, a fare display, lane lights and an automatic barrier. The lane controller compares the class stored against the tag with the class the AVC measures, and drives the exit barrier.

The money moves through four parties. The plaza's toll management software sends the read to the acquirer bank appointed for that plaza. The acquirer's system uses NPCI's NETC Mapper and NETC Switch to check the tag, work out the fare and send the debit. NPCI (National Payments Corporation of India), acting as the central clearing house, routes it to the issuer bank that issued the tag, which debits the user. A government reply of July 2026 says no FASTag transaction can happen without the acquirer, NPCI and the issuer bank, and that more than 98% of user fee is now collected through FASTag.

The weak point is the lane itself. The 2020 tender sized the RFID transceiver to read at least 2 tags a second for a vehicle moving at 40 km/h, and the barrier to complete an open-close cycle in 1.2 seconds. Every vehicle still has to slow down, enter a lane and wait for the barrier.

What does MLFF change?

MLFF removes the barrier and the need to keep to a toll lane. IHMCL's RFPs define it as a system that identifies, classifies and charges vehicles across several lanes at permissible speeds, generally without them slowing down, stopping or using dedicated toll lanes. The Government has said MLFF in India will use the existing FASTag (RFID) plus ANPR (automatic number plate recognition) with AI analytics.

In the current IHMCL RFPs, it is built in two places. Inside the existing plaza, the bank sets up barrier-less ANPR and RFID tolling on a fixed number of lanes. In the Telangana TL-02 RFP that is 8 lanes per plaza, including 2 standby lanes, and NHAI closes the rest. The bank also builds one new gantry per direction, within about 350 metres after the plaza, covering 2 to 5 lanes plus paved shoulders, so the whole carriageway is caught. Gantry designs must be approved by an IIT or NIT.

The field kit grows. Each MLFF site needs RFID readers and antennas, ANPR cameras with infrared (IR) illuminators, audit surveillance cameras on both sides of the gantry, radar and LiDAR detectors to count and classify, a control centre, and two 1 Gbps internet links from different licensed operators with automatic failover.

The biggest change is enforcement. At a barrier, a vehicle with no valid tag is stopped and charged. On a gantry nothing stops it, so the system must prove the vehicle passed, identify it from its plate, and recover the fee later through an e-notice. That puts the plate read, the evidence and the law at the centre of the design.

MLFF vs FASTag lane tolling: what is the difference?

Both use the same FASTag and the same NETC payment chain. The difference is how the vehicle is identified, what happens when the tag fails, and who carries the risk.

Who does what in NHAI's MLFF model?

IHMCL runs the tenders for NHAI, plaza by plaza or in numbered bundles such as DL-01, RJ-02, OD-01, TL-01 and GJ-03. Bundles listed on IHMCL's tender page in 2026 range from 3 to 14 plazas. The bidder is a bank, not an integrator. It must be certified by NPCI as an acquirer bank under NETC, and the bid is won by the lowest fixed fee per transaction, inclusive of programme management fee and GST. Payments banks, small finance banks and Tier-4 scheduled urban cooperative banks are capped on the total annual toll collection of the plazas they can win, based on their net worth or paid-up capital.

The bank must do the work through a sub-contractor, which the RFP calls the system integrator (SI). The SI can be an Indian company or LLP, a joint venture, or a firm incorporated abroad, which may team with Indian firms for implementation and operations. The SI signs an exclusive MoU with one bank for that tender. If two bids name the same SI, both bids are rejected. The bank stays solely responsible for every deliverable and SLA.

The contract is turnkey. The bank designs, supplies, installs, tests, commissions, operates and maintains the system, integrates it with NPCI, IHMCL's Toll Monitoring and Control Centre (TMCC) and the e-notice system, and migrates data from the existing toll software. The TL-02 RFP gives 6 months from contract signing to go-live at every plaza, with site acceptance tests plaza by plaza, then 5 years of operation and maintenance. Equipment needs a five-year warranty.

Early awards used a different price model. IHMCL's 2025-26 annual report shows ICICI Bank won Choryasi and Gharaunda on revenue share, at 2.05% and 1.82%. Later plazas went on a per-transaction fee, from Rs 2.94 to Rs 13.98, to banks including Jio Payments Bank, Airtel Payments Bank, IDFC First Bank, IndusInd Bank and ICICI Bank. NHAI, NIC and NICSI signed an MoU for the e-notice application and grievance portal, and Canara Bank settles e-notice payments. By 31 July 2026, Rs 897.44 lakh had been received against e-notices.

Where is MLFF live, and what has been tendered?

IHMCL signed India's first MLFF contract with ICICI Bank for Choryasi fee plaza on NH-48 in Gujarat, announced by NHAI on 30 August 2025, along with Gharaunda on NH-44 in Haryana. NHAI said then that it planned MLFF at around 25 fee plazas in that financial year.

IHMCL's 2025-26 annual report lists six plazas live by 1 August 2026: Choryasi (1 May 2026), Mundka in Delhi (11 May), Daulatpura (19 June), Gharaunda in Haryana (25 June), Manoharpura (1 July) and Shahjahanpur (1 August). Daulatpura, Manoharpura and Shahjahanpur are in Rajasthan. The Government's 22 July 2026 reply lists 17 awarded plazas, including Kasepalli, Amakthadu and Marur on NH-44 in Andhra Pradesh, three plazas in Tamil Nadu, two in Maharashtra and one in Assam, and 104 plazas under tender. IHMCL's annual report counts 101 plazas under tender on 31 July 2026, across Delhi, Rajasthan, Odisha, Telangana and Gujarat.

More RFPs followed: Rajasthan RJ-03 and Telangana TL-02 on 6 August 2026, two Tamil Nadu plazas near Chennai (Thiruneermalai and Athipattu-Menambedu) on 28 August, Delhi DL-04 on 7 September, and the Delhi-Dehradun Expressway on 26 October 2026. Plaza counts change with each corrigendum, so check IHMCL's tender page before quoting a total.

How does MLFF enforcement and the e-notice work?

The legal basis came in 2026. The Central Motor Vehicles (Second Amendment) Rules, 2026, announced on 20 January 2026, define unpaid user fee as a fee for a National Highway section where the ETC system recorded the vehicle's passage but did not receive the fee. A vehicle with unpaid user fee cannot get an NOC for transfer, a renewed or new fitness certificate, or a National Permit. The Ministry said the change will help collection once MLFF is in place.

The National Highways Fee (Second Amendment) Rules, 2026, in force from 17 March 2026, set out the e-notice under Rule 14. It names the vehicle, date, place and amount, and can be sent by SMS, email, app or other electronic means. The amount is twice the user fee, or the normal fee if paid within 72 hours. An owner can object on the portal within 72 hours, and if the objection is not decided within five days the claim lapses. After 15 days unpaid, with no objection pending, the dues go into VAHAN.

IHMCL's RFP sets the bank's side of the process. For closed, blacklisted and unregistered tags, the bank must raise the e-notice within 48 hours of crossing. For hotlisted and low-balance tags, the issuer warns the user by SMS, the user gets 24 hours to recharge, and only then is an e-notice case raised. No e-notice may go to exempt vehicles, plaza discount pass holders or holders of a global pass such as the FASTag annual pass. Each wrong e-notice costs the bank Rs 1,000 or twice the user fee, whichever is higher. The bank is not responsible for recovering the unpaid fee.

What are the hard problems in MLFF?

Most failure modes come from moving the decision from a barrier to a camera. These are the ones that decide whether a plaza meets its SLA.

• Plate reading on Indian plates. Manufacturers must supply HSRP with vehicles made on or after 1 April 2019, but older, dirty, stylised, two-line and regional-script plates are still on the road. The RFP excludes plates that are humanly not readable from the 99% target, but not ones that IR, HDR, a second camera or a better angle could have read.
• Tag and plate mismatch. One tag moved between vehicles, several tags on one vehicle, or a tag class that does not match the vehicle all break the pairing. NHAI's 'One Vehicle, One FASTag' drive of January 2024 targeted the first two of these. The RFP's site test checks that tag IDs and plate numbers are matched correctly.
• Wrong e-notices. Every misread plate becomes a demand sent to an innocent owner, a grievance, and a penalty for the bank. At 99%, one plate in a hundred is still wrong or missed, so the manual validation team the RFP requires in the control centre is not optional.
• Lane discipline. Without lanes, vehicles straddle markings, tailgate and switch lanes under the gantry. One RFID reader covers up to two lanes, so reads can land in the wrong lane. The RFP asks for proof of adjacent-lane interference rejection and front-rear plate matching.
• Speed and mixed traffic. Cameras must freeze plates at 150 km/h or more, and trucks and buses can hide smaller vehicles from a single camera. Count and classification below 98% are treated as a breach.
• A rule and tender gap. The TL-02 RFP of August 2026 still describes a 7-day window for grievances, while the rules in force since March 2026 allow 72 hours. Bidders should build to the gazette and ask IHMCL to clarify.
• Equipment supply. IHMCL's annual report says its ATMS projects were delayed by a shortage of STQC-certified cameras from April 2025. MLFF cameras face similar sourcing rules.

What do highway-grade ANPR and RFID specs mean?

IHMCL has held a workshop on highway-grade cameras for MLFF and ATMS. Its RFPs show what the term means in practice. Each line below is a minimum from the TL-02 RFP, and the bidder must add whatever else is needed, such as thermal cameras or extra lighting, at no extra cost.

• RFID reader: UHF 865-868 MHz, ISO 18000-6C (RAIN RFID, Gen2), up to +33 dBm conducted power, dense-interrogator mode against interference, reads at 100 km/h or more, IP65.
• ANPR camera: 3 MP or better, global-shutter CMOS or proven equal, shutter down to 1/100,000 s, up to 50/60 fps, about 40 m range, capture at 150 km/h or more, reads both retro-reflective and non-reflective plates, IP67 housing with heater and blower.
• Evidence: number plate and video from 5 seconds before to 5 seconds after each violation. ANPR and audit images kept 180 days, video 30 days, and all e-notice evidence until the case closes.
• Accuracy: 99% plate accuracy, day and night, without manual validation, tested in fog, rain, glare, low light, skewed plates, high speed and lane switching. Vehicle count and classification at 99% a day.
• Uptime: 99.9% a month for control-centre equipment and software, which allows 44 minutes of downtime. Below 98% is a breach.
• Supply rules: no HiSilicon chipsets in cameras, no source code held in a country that shares a land border with India, and makers registered with the competent authority if they come from one. Gantry cameras must come from a named preferred list or a maker with a year of MLFF operation.

Why not GNSS tolling instead?

Satellite-based (GNSS) tolling would charge by distance without gantries, but it is not the current plan. The Government told the Rajya Sabha in July 2026 that an Apex Committee and a High-Level Empowered Committee had recommended further deliberation on GPS-based tolling because of security, privacy and operational control concerns. It chose MLFF on FASTag plus ANPR instead, which keeps the existing tag base and the NETC payment chain.

How Ahuva approaches ANPR and enforcement on roads

Ahuva's video surveillance and ITMS line covers city traffic surveillance, enforcement, IP surveillance, AI/ML analytics and ANPR, with a centralised VMS. It entered intelligent transport, ITMS and ATCS, in 2025. It is delivering Project Sarthi for the Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation via KELTRON, whose published scope includes violation enforcement at 90 junctions and free-flow monitoring at 14 locations. That is city traffic work, not tolling.