The Zimbabwe National Road Administration (ZINARA) is rolling out dedicated electronic-tag express lanes across the country’s 29 tollgates.

The system uses RFID tags attached to vehicle windscreens and linked to prepaid accounts. Readers identify approaching vehicles, verify their accounts and open the toll barrier without requiring a manual payment. Conventional payment lanes will remain available for motorists who have not registered for an electronic tag. ZINARA said: “They separate electronic and contactless transactions from cash and other conventional payment methods, allowing faster processing of vehicles.”

The programme includes physical expansion at several of Zimbabwe’s busiest toll plazas. Inkomo Toll Plaza, which serves traffic travelling between Harare and northern Zimbabwe, has been expanded from four to six lanes. Two of the six lanes have been reserved for electronic payments. Construction is also under way at Umguza Tollgate on the Bulawayo-Victoria Falls Highway.

Its approaches are being widened from one to three lanes in each direction, with one express lane on each side allocated to electronic users. ZINARA expects the separation of cash and electronic transactions to reduce queues and idling, strengthen revenue assurance and improve the movement of people and freight. The roads authority said implementation will prioritise high-traffic tollgates on major national highways before extending the model across the full 29-site network.