New York’s plan to start charging drivers a $15 congestion toll to enter Midtown Manhattan could kickstart as soon as mid-June, a lawyer for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority said this week.

The statements made in New Jersey federal court Tuesday laid out the clearest timeline to date for the Empire State’s controversial plan to impose the nation’s first congestion pricing fee system — which has been met with a slew of lawsuits.

During a hearing in the Garden State’s suit attempting to block the plan, MTA attorney Mark Chertok said details of the finalized fee structure could be decided on by the end of March, which would then pave the way for the final approval process steps needed to start enforcing the toll come June, Bloomberg reported.

Before drivers can start being charged, the plan would first have to go to the Federal Highway Administration to crosscheck it with the findings of an environmental assessment, Chertok told the judge.

Then, the federal government would have to reach an agreement with New York City and New York State — the plan’s sponsors — to allow the tolling to start, the attorney added.

Judge Leo Gordon set oral arguments for April 3 given “the time pressures associated with this case,” accordign to Bloomberg.

MTA chairman Janno Lieber had previously said he was hopeful the agency could begin charging drivers the toll in May.

Under the contentious plan, the MTA would hit drivers with a $15 daily toll if they come into Manhattan’s central business district below 60th Street in a bid to curb peak-day congestion.

Transit officials have said the $15 toll could raise $1 billion per year, which would be used to fund $15 billion in bonds to pay for major upgrades to the MTA’s subway, commuter railroads and bus systems.

But New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy filed a federal lawsuit in July last year in a bid to block the plan — arguing Garden State drivers would be unfairly targeted.

The suit, filed against the US Department of Transportation and the Federal Highway Administration, argues that the plan is a “brazen money grab” given New Jersey drivers already pay tolls to enter Manhattan.

Murphy, as well as other state officials, allege the federal government improperly allowed the MTA to an expedited review of the potential environmental and economic costs of the toll.

New York and MTA officials, however, insist the expedited environmental review still took more than two years to complete and spans more than 4,000 pages.

Murphy’s suit is one of about a half-dozen suits that have been filed over the congestion pricing law, which was signed into law by then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo in 2019.

The ongoing litigation has already caused months-long delays and held up major New York infrastructure initiatives — including the $1.3 billion program to overhaul and upgrade signals on the delay-plagued A and C lines through Brooklyn, the MTA has previously said.