From midnight on 12 November, vehicles on the Chennai-Bengaluru highway pass the Nemili toll plaza near Sriperumbudur without stopping, and the toll is taken by camera and FASTag reader.
No boom barrier at Nemili any more. The National Highways Authority of India switched the plaza on NH-48 to its Multi Lane Free Flow system at zero hours on Thursday, making it the second fee plaza in Tamil Nadu to go barrier-free, six weeks after Paranur on GST Road.
How the toll is taken without a booth
Overhead equipment does the work the cashier and the lifting barrier used to do. High-performance RFID readers pick up each vehicle’s FASTag as it passes at highway speed. At the same moment, AI-enabled automatic number plate recognition cameras photograph the registration plate. The system matches the tag to the plate in real time and deducts the toll from the account linked to the FASTag. Where the tag is not detected, the number plate camera serves as the backup record. On access-controlled highways, NHAI says the same set-up can charge by distance, using the points where a vehicle enters and leaves.
For a commuter heading out of Chennai towards Sriperumbudur’s factories in the morning, the visible change is the absence of a queue.
NHAI lists the gains as fewer queues, shorter travel times, lower fuel use and emissions, and reduced operating and maintenance costs at the plaza. It has not published how a vehicle with no working FASTag will be charged at Nemili, or any penalty for one.
Paranur went first, Chennasamudaram is next
Paranur, on GST Road near Chengalpattu, became the first user fee plaza in Tamil Nadu to move to fully automated collection on 1 October 2026. Nemili follows on 12 November.
The third Tamil Nadu plaza on NHAI’s list is Chennasamudaram, near Walajah, further along the same Chennai-Bengaluru highway. NHAI has said it may introduce the system there after trial operations, without giving a date. All three were among 16 fee plazas across the country picked for the first round of barrier-less tolling, with a second phase to cover 36.
Closer to the city, NHAI has invited bids to replace the toll plazas on the Chennai Bypass, the stretch from Tambaram to Puzhal via Maduravoyal, with the same system. No start date has been announced for the Bypass.
The plan was announced in March
Work at the three Tamil Nadu plazas began months ago. In March, an NHAI official said groundwork had started and that sites were being marked for the number plate cameras, with about four months of civil work to be followed by software installation and testing before any plaza went live. Paranur cleared that sequence first, on 1 October.
Nemili took six weeks longer.
What drivers need to do
Keep a valid FASTag fixed to the windscreen with enough balance, and make sure the vehicle’s number plate is clean and readable, since the camera is the system’s fallback. The Indian Highways Management Company Limited, the company formed with equity from NHAI, a concessionaire and financial institutions to run electronic toll collection on national highways, operates the FASTag programme. Its website carries a short video titled Everything users should know about MLFF, along with frequently asked questions on the FASTag Annual Pass for regular users of national highways. Complaints and help on national highways go to the 24×7 National Highway Helpline, 1033.
Nemili is on the stretch many Chennai drivers use for weekend runs towards Vellore and Bengaluru.
The next change on this road comes at Chennasamudaram, once NHAI finishes its trial runs there.
Checked against official sources on 13 November 2026.
