(Yicai Global) July 19 -- Shanghai will enable drivers to sign up online for the electronic toll collection system from next month to help quicken the removal of physical booths on highways and potentially boost capacity at the city's borders with neighboring Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces by three to five times.

Drivers will be able to use the ETC system after making an online application, and installing and activating the necessary equipment, the Shanghai Municipal Transportation Commission said in a press release today. Shanghai Public Traffic Card has 106 offline ETC installation outlets across the city, the company said, adding that it has a new generation of handheld devices to do on-site installation.

Shanghai has nine provincial toll stations, including five at the junction with Jiangsu province and four with Zhejiang province. It will do away with them and have at least 80 percent of the city's registered cars equipped for ETC by the end of this year, according to a policy issued on June 21. The city will keep mixed toll lanes for vehicles with no ETC system, but their journeys will be less hassle free.

In this year's central government work report, China proposed abolishing national highway toll booths over two years and replacing them all with the ETC system. The country had 83.7 million ETC users as of the end of May, which is nearly 100 million from the goal of full coverage, according to estimates from Minsheng Securities.