A regular commute to downtown Tel Aviv may incur another expense line — in addition to gasoline, parking, insurance, and time spent in traffic.
In the Gush Dan metropolitan area, preparations for a congestion charge system continue. Drivers are planned to be automatically identified when crossing the borders of three payment rings, and the cost of the trip will depend on the route, direction, and time of day.
The project can no longer be called just an idea of the Ministry of Finance. The law has been approved by the government and the Knesset, a state tender has been conducted, Electra has been chosen as the general contractor, and Partner is to build the communication network that will connect cameras, payment points, and computing centers.
At the end of July 2026, Partner announced that the expected launch date of the system had been postponed from 2027 to 2028. However, as of August 6, 2026, the final date for the start of money collection is still not fixed as immutable: the political decision may be made by the next government.
This is not just an ‘entry fee to Tel Aviv’
The common wording about paid entry to Tel Aviv is understandable but does not quite accurately describe the future system.
There will be no barrier at the city border. The driver will pay not for the mere presence of the car in Tel Aviv, but for crossing the equipped borders of the payment rings at set times.
The agglomeration will be divided into three zones:
- outer ring;
- middle ring;
- inner ring around the main center of congestion and concentration of jobs.
If a driver sequentially crosses several borders, the charges will be summed up. At the same time, a person who moves within one zone and does not cross its border through a payment point will not necessarily receive a bill.
The law directly defines the charge as a fee for crossing the ring border through an equipped camera point during peak hours. For a regular car, there is a daily limit, but for some categories of transport, this restriction will not apply.
How much will have to be paid in the morning
It is important to correct an error that appeared in some recent publications.
The Jerusalem Post indicated that crossing each of the three rings in the morning would cost 10 shekels. However, the current text of the law sets a different rate for the outer boundary.
From 06:30 to 10:00 when moving towards the center, the following base rates are assumed:
- outer ring — 5 shekels;
- middle ring — 10 shekels;
- inner ring — 10 shekels.
Thus, a driver entering the central part of Tel Aviv from outside the entire agglomeration in the morning will pay 25 shekels.
For example, a person traveling from an area located outside the outer ring will sequentially cross the outer, middle, and inner boundaries. For such a morning trip, 5 + 10 + 10 shekels will be charged.
A driver starting a trip inside the outer ring may only cross the middle and inner boundaries and pay 20 shekels. The exact amount will depend not on the municipal address as such, but on the actual route and location of the fixation points.
The morning charge applies only when moving towards the congestion center. A trip in the opposite direction in the morning under the current model is not charged.
How much will be charged after lunch
From 15:00 to 19:00, the charge should be levied in both directions — both when moving towards the center and when leaving it.
The base rates will be:
- outer ring — 2.5 shekels;
- middle ring — 5 shekels;
- inner ring — 5 shekels.
A full crossing of all three rings after lunch will cost 12.5 shekels.
If a driver enters the central part of the agglomeration through all three rings in the morning and returns the same route in the evening, the total bill will be 37.5 shekels. This is simultaneously the daily maximum for a regular car.
With a conditional 22 working days, such a trip can add about 825 shekels to a family’s expenses per month. With 220 working days a year, the amount will reach 8250 shekels — not including parking, fuel, and car maintenance.
However, this calculation is for a person who crosses all three rings daily during paid hours. The driver can reduce expenses by changing the travel time, route, or switching to public transport.
Why the specified rates may still change
The amounts of 5, 10, and 2.5 shekels are the base rates established in the 2021 law. They may not necessarily remain nominally the same by the time the system is actually launched.
The law provides for cost adjustments depending on indexation and changes in average traffic speed. If the roads remain more congested than the baseline indicator, rates may increase. With a significant improvement in traffic speed, a reduction is allowed.
In certain cases, the change may be 7.5% or 15%. Therefore, the amount of 37.5 shekels is more accurately called the current base daily maximum, rather than the guaranteed final price of 2028.
Where the three rings will pass
The final bill will depend on which borders the car crosses.
The inner ring should cover the main part of central Tel Aviv — an area with the highest concentration of jobs, offices, commerce, and transport demand.
The middle ring includes a significant part of the nearest urban belt: Ramat Gan, Givatayim, Bnei Brak, Holon, Bat Yam, as well as areas of Tel Aviv that will not be included in the inner zone.
The outer ring covers a wider area of the agglomeration. It includes areas associated with Herzliya, Petah Tikva, Rishon LeZion, Beit Dagan, Yehud-Monosson, Or Yehuda, Kiryat Ono, Ganei Tikva, and Givat Shmuel.
But it is wrong to perceive this as a simple list of ‘paid cities’. The borders should predominantly pass along main roads, so different parts of one municipality may end up on different sides of the line.
In other words, a resident of a specific city will not necessarily pay the same amount each time. Everything will be determined by their address, destination, chosen road, and time of crossing the camera.
How cars will be recorded
The future system does not involve stopping cars for payment.
Electra is to install about 220 recording points, combined into approximately 140 payment locations. They will be placed on roads along the borders of the three rings.
Cameras and technological systems should:
- recognize the car’s registration number;
- record the time and place of crossing;
- determine the direction of movement;
- match data with the established rate;
- form a charge;
- transmit information to the payment and customer service system.
The project also includes the creation of a control center, a payment collection system, communication channels, and driver support infrastructure.
Electra estimates the total concession period at approximately 22 years. The operation and maintenance of the system are calculated for at least two decades.
Why the project needs Partner
Partner will not independently determine rates or receive all the collection from drivers. Its task is to ensure communication between payment points and computing centers.
It is planned to use fiber optic infrastructure and mobile communication as a backup channel. The network should operate around the clock, transmit data from cameras, support control systems, and maintain operability during individual technical failures.
According to Partner, the company will also be responsible for monitoring, maintenance, and technical support of the communication infrastructure throughout the entire operation period.
Expected revenues for Partner from this part of the project are estimated in tens of millions of shekels.
How much Electra will receive
Electra won the state tender for the design, construction, launch, operation, and maintenance of the entire system.
According to the company’s own estimate, the total amount of receipts over the concession period may amount to about 1.25 billion shekels:
- about 400 million shekels — payment for infrastructure creation;
- approximately 850 million shekels — expected revenues for the operational period, taking into account indexation.
At the same time, 850 million shekels cannot be considered an unconditionally guaranteed payment. Electra’s notice to investors emphasizes that the forecast depends on the volume of use, indexation, incentive payments, political and economic situation.
The state tender of the Ministry of Finance was published on February 18, 2025, and the deadline for submitting proposals ended on September 16, 2025. In December, Electra was announced as the winner.
Who will be exempt from the charge
The list of exemptions is broader than just motorcycles and cars with a disability sign.
According to the current law, the following should not pay:
- buses, except private minibuses;
- route taxis during a licensed trip;
- accessible taxis for transporting people with disabilities;
- a car with a disability sign if a person entitled to the benefit is riding in it;
- motorcycles and tricycles;
- bicycles with an electric motor and electric scooters;
- emergency vehicles of security forces;
- rescue and evacuation vehicles.
Regular taxis must pay half the standard rate, but without a daily limit.
A double rate without a daily limit is set for commercial vehicles with a permitted mass of over 12 tons. Therefore, the common wording ‘all trucks will pay twice as much’ also requires clarification.
There is no separate exemption for electric vehicles in the current list. A general benefit for residents of Tel Aviv, Ramat Gan, or other cities within the rings is also not provided.
On which days the charge should not apply
The payment is provided only on certain working days and peak hours established by law.
Friday is excluded from the definition of a working day for calculation. The charge should also not apply on Saturday, official rest days, the eves of such days, Chol HaMoed, and legally established non-working days.
This means that the system is primarily oriented towards the regular flow of people entering the business agglomeration from Sunday to Thursday.
Where the collected money will go
According to forecasts, the charge may bring the state about 1.3–1.4 billion shekels per year. This is an estimate, not a guaranteed result: the actual amount will depend on driver behavior and the number of paid crossings.
Up to 700 million shekels per year is planned to be directed towards the development of public transport. The remaining part should become one of the sources of funding for the Gush Dan metro, the cost of which is estimated at more than 175 billion shekels.
With a forecasted receipt of 1.4 billion, it may mean about another 700 million shekels annually for the metro.
Here arises a fundamental question noted by NAnews — News of Israel: the system should simultaneously reduce the number of cars and bring in money. The more successfully drivers refuse cars, the less the receipts will be. Therefore, the transport effect and the budgetary effect of the project do not always move in the same direction.
Why Miri Regev opposes
Transport Minister Miri Regev continues to oppose the project, despite the already adopted law.
Her main argument is that the state should not charge drivers extra until a full-fledged alternative to private cars is created.
The charge may be especially painful for people who live far from railway stations, work in areas with inconvenient bus routes, start their shift early in the morning, or finish it late in the evening.
Regev also argued that the new charge would hit residents of the periphery and socially vulnerable groups harder. In November 2025, she warned that continuing the tender would create financial obligations to contractors, and in the event of project cancellation, companies could demand large compensation from the state.
The minister reported that she appealed to the head of government with a request to hold an urgent discussion on canceling the charge. The Ministry of Finance, on the contrary, considers it a national necessity and warns: if canceled, other sources for public transport and the metro will have to be found.
Why the tender was conducted by the Ministry of Finance
Initially, the implementation of the infrastructure was handled by the transport company ‘Netivei Ayalon’. However, in March 2023, Miri Regev ordered the prepared tender to be frozen.
Since the law itself continued to operate, the Ministry of Finance transferred the project to the responsibility of the chief accountant and published a new government tender.
As a result, an unusual situation has arisen: the Ministry of Transport opposes a system that formally relates to transport policy, while the Ministry of Finance simultaneously signs long-term contracts for its creation.
The further the infrastructure construction progresses, the more difficult and politically expensive it will be to cancel the project. That is why the choice of Electra and Partner is more significant than another statement by one of the ministers: the state is gradually turning the law into a physical network of cameras, servers, and contractual obligations.
Why the launch is associated with 2028
Initially, the year 2027 was mentioned. Now contractors and Israeli media are focusing on 2028.
One of the reasons is the desire to launch the collection after additional public transport options become available.
The Purple Line is supposed to connect Yehud-Monosson, Or Yehuda, Givat Shmuel, Kiryat Ono, Ramat Gan, and Givatayim with central Tel Aviv. NTA now indicates 2028 as the expected opening date.
The southern section of the Green Line from Rishon LeZion and Holon towards the Levinsky area is also planned to be introduced in 2028. The full launch of the entire Green Line is expected later.
For opponents of the collection, this is a key argument: first, the state should give a person the opportunity to get to work without a car, and only then make car trips more expensive.
However, there is currently no legal automatic dependency between the opening of a specific line and the start of payment. This is more of a political condition and an argument in public discussion.
2028 is a guideline, but not a guarantee
The headline ‘paid entry will be introduced in 2028’ sounds as if the decision is final and cannot be changed. At this stage, this is too categorical a formulation.
Partner calls 2028 the deadline for launching the infrastructure. The Jerusalem Post writes that the start of fee collection may be postponed until the end of 2028, after the opening of some new light rail lines.
At the same time, the publication indicates that the final political decision will be made by the next government.
Therefore, the correct formulation as of August 2026 looks like this: the congestion charge system in the Tel Aviv metropolitan area is being prepared for launch in 2028, but the final date may still change.
Will the collection solve the congestion problem
Project supporters proceed from simple logic: the road during peak hours is a limited resource. As long as entry to congested directions does not have a separate price, the driver considers his own expenses but does not take into account the delay his car creates for other road users.
The collection should encourage some people to:
- reschedule the trip to another time;
- choose a different route;
- switch to a train, bus, or light rail;
- organize a carpool;
- drive to the center less often by car.
But for this, a person must have a real alternative. The call ‘switch to a bus’ is of little help to a parent who needs to take a child, a night shift worker, or a resident of an area where it takes two more buses to get to the nearest station.
This is where the real boundary of the dispute lies. The question is not only whether the economic restriction works at all. The question is how fair it is to apply it in a metropolitan area where the quality of public transport varies greatly depending on the area, route, and time of day.
What will change for Israeli residents
For some drivers, the collection will become a noticeable but episodic fee. For others, it will be a regular monthly expense of hundreds of shekels.
Particularly attentive to the project should be those who:
- commute daily to the center of the metropolitan area from Rishon LeZion, Petah Tikva, Herzliya, or the eastern cities of Gush Dan;
- work during standard morning and evening peak hours;
- do not have a convenient train or bus route;
- receive compensation from the employer only for the minimum cost of public transport;
- rent or buy housing, counting on daily trips to Tel Aviv.
The system may also affect the labor market. Employers in the center will have to decide whether to compensate employees for the new collection, organize corporate shuttles, and change the office presence schedule.
In the long term, the cost of the trip may also affect the cost of housing near train stations, demand for parking, the popularity of remote work, and the location of new office centers.
Conclusion by NANews
The congestion charge project has crossed an important boundary. The law existed for several years, but it could be perceived as a political decision that had not yet turned into infrastructure. Now companies have been selected, the technological scheme has been determined, and the preparation of a long-term system has begun.
But several key questions remain open:
- when exactly will the actual collection of money begin;
- will the current base rates remain;
- will the promised public transport lines be opened in time;
- will the list of benefits change;
- will the next government decide to launch the unpopular collection;
- will drivers get a convenient way to check the route and future trip cost.
NANews — News of Israel also draws attention to the informational confusion around the project. Even major publications continue to publish different morning rates and call 2028 both the final date and a possible deadline.
Therefore, it is already worth separating three levels of information.
The first is what is enshrined in law: the model of three rings, hours, base rates, daily maximum, and list of benefits.
The second is what has moved to practical implementation: the choice of Electra, the participation of Partner, the plan to create 220 fixation points, and twenty years of operation.
The third is what still depends on politics: the actual launch date, possible tariff adjustments, and the fate of the project after the formation of the next government.
The congestion charge in Gush Dan is becoming more and more real. But until the driver has received the first bill, the project’s history remains not only transport-related but also political.