Indonesia’s Multi Lane Free Flow (MLFF) toll payment system — designed to let vehicles pass through toll gates without stopping — has been in development since 2016 and was originally scheduled for a June 2023 pilot launch that never happened. As of March 28, 2026, Public Works Minister Dody Hanggodo confirmed the system will undergo another round of testing, after the initial Bali pilot failed to produce a clear conclusion on whether the technology actually works in Indonesian conditions. The retest announcement is the latest in a long chain of deferrals for a project that has already consumed over Rp2 trillion in Hungarian taxpayer-funded investment — and still has no confirmed national rollout date.
Key Facts & Background
- The MLFF project originated from a 2021 cooperation agreement between the Indonesian and Hungarian governments, with Roatex Ltd — through its local subsidiary PT Roatex Indonesia Toll System (RITS) — as the implementing entity, carrying a total investment value of USD 300 million.
- RITS Director Renaldi Utomo confirmed the project has already consumed more than Rp2 trillion in funding sourced from Hungarian public money — and that all hardware and software systems are already physically present in Indonesia, with RITS ready to operate, pending government clearance.
- The system has now undergone a pre-trial functional test covering 64 transaction scenarios, all of which were reportedly executable and assessable — but the government clarified this phase only tests whether scenarios can be run, not whether the system performs reliably under real traffic conditions.
- Minister Dody confirmed that 2–3 additional test rounds are planned before any deployment decision is made, with each test phase followed by evaluation — a timeline that implies full implementation remains at least several months away at a minimum.
- The minister explicitly cited Indonesia-specific conditions as a complicating factor: weather, signal interference, and variable traffic patterns differ significantly from the European environments where satellite-based GNSS toll systems have been successfully deployed.
- The MLFF system relies on GNSS satellite technology and requires all toll road users to register their vehicle data and personal information on the Cantas application before entering a toll road — a public onboarding requirement that has not yet been rolled out at scale.
- MLFF is classified as a National Strategic Project (PSN) under Coordinating Ministry for Economic Affairs Regulation No. 16 of 2025, meaning delays carry political and contractual weight beyond routine infrastructure timelines.
- Minister Dody has not ruled out replacing MLFF with an alternative technology altogether, stating: “Whether MLFF or another technology, I cannot confirm right now. We are reviewing — we want what is best for the nation.”
Note: Multi-source AI data analytics, acknowledging the possibility of inaccuracies.