China is to launch a national unified electronic toll collection (ETC) system in the next year to solve freeway congestion, save costs and cut emissions.

The national ETC network will be primarily completed by the end of 2015 based on a regional system that will cover 14 provinces by the end of this year, said Xu Chengguang, a spokesman for the Ministry of Transport.

The ministry expects 25 percent of passenger cars to be equipped with transponders and all toll stations on major expressways covered by the system by that time.

China currently has 260 million vehicles, but only 13 million users pay toll fees via the ETC system.

The system is expected to solve traffic congestion in front of toll gates, especially during holidays, where Chinese passengers used to skip rope in the highways-turned-parking lots to kill seemingly endless waiting time.

“An ETC lane equals to five other lanes where tolls are collected manually as transit time is cut to three seconds from 14 seconds,” said Wang Gang, director of the ministry’s ETC center.

Wang estimated that 87 percent of expenditure on toll stations and 20 percent of service costs will be saved thanks to the system.

Around 20 percent of fuel will be saved and carbon dioxide emissions cut by 50 percent, he added.

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