The South African National Roads Agency (Sanral) has awarded a $155m (ZAR1.16bn) contract to a Kapsch-led consortium to supply, install and maintain an electronic tolling system in the province of Gauteng.

The roads agency is planning an open road tolling system that will require each vehicle to carry an electronic tag that would automatically trigger the tolling system housed in 38 overhead gantries, set about 10km apart across the Gauteng freeway system.

The project is divided into three phases, with the first phase set to cost R22bn.

The toll system is part of the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project to upgrade 185km of freeways in Gauteng including sections of the N1, N3, N12 and R21.

The Electronic Toll Collection joint venture, includes Kapsch Sweden, Kapsch Austria and South Africa’s Traffic Management Technology.

Work will include the construction of an open road tolling back office system for transaction collection, a transaction clearing house system to be used for central account management and transaction clearing as well as a violations processing centre system to process unpaid toll fees and recover related costs.

The system, to be located in 38 overhead gantries, will be installed in three phases.

Work is expected to be finished within 18 months and completed by April 2011.