"Barrier-less tolling marks a shift from infrastructure-centric to data-centric highway governance." Examine the opportunities and risks of the Multi-Lane Free Flow (MLFF) system in India.

Multi-Lane Free Flow (MLFF) is a toll system with no barriers. Overhead RFID readers read the FASTag and ANPR cameras read the number plate, so toll is deducted while vehicles move at highway speed [2]. MLFF started at Chorayasi (NH-48, Gujarat) and has now reached Paranur (NH-179B), Tamil Nadu's first such plaza [1]. It replaces the boom barrier with a vehicle database, so toll governance now depends on accurate data more than on physical plazas.

Opportunities

• Efficiency: vehicles no longer stop at plazas. This cuts congestion, travel time and fuel use, and supports Ease of Living and Ease of Doing Business [1].
• Environment: less idling means lower vehicle emissions [1].
• Lower cost: fewer physical plazas need to be built and run [1].
• Revenue and transparency: less human handling of money means less leakage. A Parliamentary Standing Committee (2024) found that FASTag had already raised toll revenue [6].
• Cleaner data: NHAI is checking the vehicle numbers linked to FASTags against the actual vehicles [3]. Accurate records are what make "pass now, pay later" possible.

Risks

• Recovery gap: a vehicle that fails to pay gets an E-Notice and pays double only after 72 hours [2], by which time it has already left. CAG found NHAI did not recover double-toll dues from concessionaires: ₹21.12 crore was lost to the Consolidated Fund and ₹63.03 crore was still pending [4].
• Wrong charges: automation makes collection faster but does not check whether a toll is lawful. CAG found ₹124.18 crore collected in breach of the Fee Rules at plazas in southern India [5]. With no booth, a user can dispute a charge only after the money is gone.
• Data errors and privacy: cloned plates or wrongly linked vehicle numbers can send notices to the wrong owner. Camera data also needs clear rules on how long it is kept and who can use it.
• Weak contracts: two NH-44 contracts in Tamil Nadu had no revenue-sharing clause, which cost NHAI ₹133.36 crore [5]. Better technology does not fix that.

MLFF can make tolling faster, cleaner and more transparent, but it will work only if the data and recovery systems behind it are reliable. NHAI should write E-Notice recovery into every contract. MoRTH should set up a time-bound appeal process. Frequent users should be able to pre-register, as Parliament advised [6]. Each plaza should also be checked against the NH Fee Rules, 2008 [7] before it switches to MLFF. With these safeguards, the move to data-based tolling can make highway governance accountable and citizen-centric, in line with SDG 9.