New York, Nov 23 (IANS): Starting in January, most drivers will pay nine US dollars to enter the heart of Manhattan, after New York City was granted federal approval for a tolling plan, decades in the making, that will be the first of its kind in the nation.

"New York will now join a small club of global capitals around the world that includes London, Stockholm and Singapore that have installed similar tolling restrictions around their gridlocked centres and seen traffic and air quality improved," said The New York Times on Friday in its report about the development.

A central goal of the program is to raise 15 billion dollars in financing for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to pay for the modernizing of the city's mass transit system, Xinhua news agency reported.

"The busiest transit system on the continent still depends on some equipment that dates back to before World War II and needs billions of dollars to install elevators and escalators, repair crumbling tracks and improve service, among other improvements," said the report.

"But even as long-suffering supporters of congestion pricing celebrate, the tolling plan could still be upended. The program is in jeopardy of being blocked by a volley of lawsuits and an incoming president who has called it 'the most regressive tax known to womankind'," noted the newspaper.