M-2 Motorway Toll Plazas From Islamabad to Lahore: Every Exit in Order

The M-2 has 22 interchanges between its Islamabad end and its Lahore end, and every one of them carries a toll plaza. A car pays Rs 3.98 for each kilometre it actually drives, Rs 1,430 for the whole run, at rates NHA has notified until 23 April 2027. The extra 50 percent for arriving without an M-Tag is suspended by a court order, so today the barrier charges tag and cash the same. Here is every exit in order from Islamabad, what it serves, and how the toll is worked out when you leave early.

The first thing to know about an M-2 motorway toll plaza is that you do not pay at most of them. The M-2 is priced by distance. You take a ticket or a tag read where you join, and you pay where you leave, for the kilometres between. That is why NHA's notice for the road carries a per kilometre rate at all, and it is the rate we use throughout.

We read NHA's toll rates page, which lists the M-2 notice separately from the rest of the network because the road runs under a concession. The rates below are as read from that notice. The order of the exits is not on any NHA page we could read, so it comes from published route descriptions, and we say where.

What does a car pay on the M-2 right now?

Rs 3.98 per kilometre, or Rs 1,430 for the full Islamabad to Lahore run, from 5 July 2026 until 23 April 2027. That is a 7 percent rise on the previous year, set by the concession agreement rather than by a fresh decision, as Profit reported on 6 July 2026.

Divide Rs 1,430 by Rs 3.98 and you get about 359 km, which is our arithmetic, not NHA's figure. The road is usually described as 375 km long, so the tolled length is a little shorter than the signposted one. The gap does not change what you pay. Every other road's rates, and why the M-2 costs fourteen times the old GT Road, are in the motorway toll rates for every road in Pakistan.

The concession matters for one practical reason. The M-2 is run by Motorway Operations and Rehabilitation Engineering, an FWO company, under a 20 year agreement signed on 23 April 2014, and the agreement fixes a 7 percent escalation from the 13th year. So the next rise is not a rumour to watch for. It is dated, 23 April 2027, and the current notice expires that day.

Where are the M-2 toll plazas in order from Islamabad?

From the Islamabad end the exits run Thalian, Chakri, Neelah Dullah, Balkasar, Kallar Kahar, Lilla, Bhera, Salam, Kot Momin, Makhdoom, Pindi Bhattian, the M-4 junction, Sukheki, Khanqah Dogran, Hiran Minar, Sheikhupura, Kala Shah Kaku, Kot Abdul Malik, Faizpur, the M-3 junction and Babu Sabu, before the Lahore end at Thokar Niaz Baig.

This order is from Wikipedia's route description, checked against two other published lists that agree on the sequence. NHA's own toll plaza pages show a map component we could not read as a list, so we could not confirm it at the authority. What each exit is for is the useful part.

Two of the exits nearest Islamabad are newer than most lists. Thalian was built for the new airport, and a Capital Smart City interchange between Chakri and Thalian appears on some route descriptions and not others, so we have left it off the count. If you are looking for the airport, Thalian is the one.

Service areas, meaning fuel, food and toilets, sit at Sukheki, Sial, Bhera, Kallar Kahar and Chakri, one on each side, ten in all, according to FWO's own M-2 page. Sial is between Kot Momin and Salam and is a service area rather than an exit. Space them out in your head: from Lahore the first is Sukheki, roughly the first hour, and the last before Islamabad is Chakri.

How much is the toll if you get off early?

Multiply the kilometres you drove by Rs 3.98. NHA publishes the per kilometre rate and the full run figure, but not a plaza by plaza table, so any exit figure you see online is somebody's arithmetic. Here is ours, on the two distances we could find in a source we would cite.

The Kala Shah Kaku distance is Wikipedia's figure and Graana puts the same plaza at about 24 km, which shows how loose these distances are. Pindi Bhattian's 120 km is also Wikipedia's. We could not find a distance for Kallar Kahar, Bhera, Balkasar or Chakri that we would put our name to, so we have not printed one. The rule of thumb that survives the uncertainty is Rs 40 for every 10 km, and the exit barrier will tell you the exact figure.

The plaza rounds and it counts from plaza to plaza, not from the city centre, so expect a few rupees either side of any estimate. If the figure at the barrier looks far off, pay it, keep the receipt, and query it with the receipt in hand.

Does cash cost more than an M-Tag on the M-2?

Not at the moment. NHA's rule adding 50 percent for a vehicle with no tag or too little balance was suspended by the Islamabad High Court on 3 July 2026, and the order was extended in August, as reported. NHA told the court it had stopped collecting the extra. The base toll is the same by tag or cash.

That is an interim order in a case still being heard, and the suspended 50 percent no tag surcharge could return if the court rules for NHA. The sensible position is to run a tag anyway. It gets you the tag lane, which on a Friday evening at Thokar or Kallar Kahar is worth more than the Rs 200 the tag cost. And a tag with no balance is the slowest thing at a plaza, because the barrier stops you and the queue behind you waits while you find cash.

Before a long run, three checks take five minutes. Confirm the balance with the M-Tag balance check by vehicle number or CNIC. If it is short, top it up through a bank app or wallet, and the routes for recharging an M-Tag online all clear within minutes. Then check the deduction in the app after your trip, because a wrong class or a double charge is only fixable with the record in front of you. The M-Tag helpline is 1313.

What happens at an M-2 toll plaza, step by step?

You slow on the approach, enter a tag lane or a cash lane, get your entry recorded, drive, and pay by distance at the exit. The whole thing takes seconds with a tag and a couple of minutes with cash on a busy evening.

1. Slow to the posted lane speed well before the booths. The lanes are marked for tags and for cash, and switching late is how the small collisions at plazas happen.
2. With a tag, keep rolling through a tag lane. Without one, stop and take the entry ticket. Do not lose it, because a missing ticket is charged as the full run.
3. Drive to your exit. Your toll is being counted in kilometres, so leaving at Kallar Kahar and rejoining costs you a second entry and a second exit.
4. At the exit barrier, the tag reader deducts the distance charge, or the booth reads your ticket and asks for cash.
5. Keep the receipt, or open the app and check the deduction against the class and distance.

Winter adds a step. Between December and February the motorway police close stretches of the M-2 in fog, often between Kot Momin and Kallar Kahar, and the closure is announced by section. The fog closure checks before you drive tell you which section is shut and where you will be turned off, which decides which plaza you actually pay at.

Common questions about M-2 toll plazas

How many toll plazas are there on the M-2?

One at each of the 22 interchanges plus the two ends. You pay only at the plaza where you leave, for the distance from where you joined.

What is the M-2 toll for a car from Lahore to Islamabad?

Rs 1,430 until 23 April 2027, per NHA's notice for the road. A wagon pays Rs 2,390.

Is the toll cheaper with an M-Tag?

No. The base toll is the same. The tag saves the queue, and the 50 percent extra for having no tag is currently suspended by the Islamabad High Court.

What if I lose my entry ticket?

Expect to be charged for the full run from the far end, because the exit plaza cannot see where you joined. A tag avoids the problem because your entry is recorded on it.

Which M-2 exit is for Islamabad airport?

Thalian, the first interchange south of the Islamabad end.

Where are the service areas on the M-2?

Sukheki, Sial, Bhera, Kallar Kahar and Chakri, on both sides of the road, according to FWO.

When do M-2 tolls go up next?

The current notice runs to 23 April 2027, and the concession sets a 7 percent escalation each year from the 13th year, so the next rise is due then.

Last checked and sources

Last checked 17 September 2026. We read NHA's motorways toll rates page at nha.gov.pk, which lists the notice for the Lahore Islamabad Motorway (M-2) separately from the general notification effective 10 July 2026; the M-2 notice is published as a scanned image, and the per kilometre rates, the full run figures, the 5 July 2026 to 23 April 2027 validity, the concession signed 23 April 2014 and the 7 percent escalation from the 13th year are as read from it. NHA's toll plaza location pages render a map with no readable list. We read FWO's M-2 page for the service areas at Sukheki, Sial, Bhera, Kallar Kahar and Chakri and its helpline 9909. The order of interchanges is reported by Wikipedia's M-2 article and agrees with two other published route lists; the 375 km length is Wikipedia's; the Kala Shah Kaku distance of about 19 km is from Wikipedia's Kala Shah Kaku article, with Graana giving about 24 km; the Pindi Bhattian distance of 120 km is from Wikipedia's Pindi Bhattian article. The 7 percent rise is reported by Profit by Pakistan Today on 6 July 2026 and PakWheels on 8 July 2026. The Islamabad High Court's suspension of the 50 percent surcharge on 3 July 2026 and its extension in August are reported, not read from the court file. Every per exit toll on this page, the Rs 40 per 10 km rule and the 359 km tolled length are our arithmetic on NHA's Rs 3.98 rate. We could not find published distances for Kallar Kahar, Bhera, Balkasar or Chakri and have not estimated them.