The city of Zhanjiang in South China's Guangdong province plans to remove all physical tollgates on provincial borders by the end of the year, according to local government officials.

It is a move to echo the CPC Central Committee and the State Council’s call on replacing physical tollgates with a virtual electronic toll collection (ETC) system.

The city has rolled out a detailed action plan to do this and is promoting the coverage of the ETC system.

According to the plan, the installation of ETC on-board devices in vehicles should be done for free and drivers can apply for free installation service at 120 Haitian Road in Chikan district, as well as the outlets of six state-owned banks including the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, China Construction Bank, Agricultural Bank of China, Bank of China, Bank of Communications, and Postal Savings Bank of China in Zhanjiang.

People can also access the service at the driving license issuing hall, department of motor vehicles, and vehicle detection stations.

The municipal government will cooperate with China's leading card payment operators UnionPay and Chinese mobile payment giant Alipay to develop more channels for ETC system installation.

Starting from July 1, 2019, a discount of 5 percent has been granted to ETC users driving on expressways in Guangdong. All the preferential policies involving highway tolls can be only enjoyed by ETC users starting from Jan 1, 2020.

Given that some vehicles may not have installed ETC devices by year's end, expressways will still offer one manned physical tollgate lane.

The move to dismantle physical tollgates will help resolve traffic jams on provincial borders and improve the experience for travelers.