MOTORISTS will spend less time queueing at tunnels when automatic toll collection is approved by the Legislative Council.
The Executive Council has already endorsed the proposed changes to tunnel-related ordinances, and the bills, to be gazetted on Friday, will take effect once approved by Legco.
The Cross-Harbour Tunnel and the Aberdeen Tunnel will be the first to benefit from the changes, with plans to install the system by August.
Under the auto-toll collection system, motorists will open an account with the tunnel company and a tag will be fixed to windscreens. Their accounts will be debited each time the car passes through an auto-toll lane.
A trial scheme started at the Aberdeen Tunnel in April last year and proved a success.
Mr Gerry Higginson, the chairman of the Cross-Harbour Tunnel Company, which also runs the Aberdeen Tunnel, said ''it will be in the drivers' interests'' to have the system.