DUSHANBE, May 14, 2010, Asia-Plus — An official ceremony of opening of two other toll service stations, Istaravshan and Chorukh, on the highway Dushanbe-Khujand-Chanak in Sughd province is taking place today, according to Tajikistan’s branch of Innovative Road Solutions Ltd (IRS), which manages this highway.
On May 11, specialists from the company reportedly held a number of meetings with residents of the villages, near which the toll plazas will be installed. They also visited the city of Istaravshan and the Shahriston district, where met with local residents to discuss issues related to introduction of the road toll management mechanism. The company representatives expressed readiness to consider proposals of local residents and take them into account when introducing the road toll management mechanism, the report said.
In the meantime, residents of the Mastchoh district in Sughd province have expressed disagreement with introduction of the toll road management mechanism for the Dushanbe-Chanak highway.
The Asia-Plus reporter for Sughd said that representatives from IRS’s branch in Tajikistan met with residents of a number of villages in the district on May 11. The meeting took place in Buston, the administrative center of the Mastchoh district, and the acting director of IRS’ branch in Tajikistan Farrukh Karimov as well as Abdukarim Hikmatov, chairman of the Mastchoh district, and Qbiljon Usmonov, the head of the Sughd transport directorate, attended the meeting. Introduction of the toll road management mechanism was the focus of the meeting.
Local residents noted that the toll would lead to rise in prices of fuel and mineral fertilizers while some local farming units were not able to pay wages to farmers, taxes and pay for irrigation water.
Speaking at the meeting, Ms. Gulbahor Avezova, the head physician of the Mastchoh central district hospital, noted that local hospital had only one ambulance “and we have to carry patients to Khujand by private transport four or five times per day and introduction of the toll road management mechanism will increase expenses of patients.”
The first two toll plazas were installed on April in the Varzob district and people living in Varzob strongly protested against the toll road and sent a petition signed by some 10,000 people to President Emomali Rahmon urging the elimination of the toll.
Besides, Mr. Amonullo Ashour, the head of Antimonopoly Committee under the Government of Tajikistan, says that the toll road is now operating illegally. He told Asia-Plus on May 5 that IRS was permitted to operate the toll at previously agreed prices on the Dushanbe-Chanak highway for one month, in April, and that the toll road operation since May 1 is illegal. Mr. Ashour said that under the agreement between the company and the government, IRS was required to coordinate its pricing policy with the antimonopoly agency and to review the toll rates after April. He added that the antimonopoly agency on May 4 sent a written ruling on suspension of the road toll management mechanism for the Dushanbe-Khujand-Chanak highway to IRS and copies of the ruling were sent to the Ministry of Transport Communications and the administration of the Varzob district.
According to Mr. Ashour, the antimonopoly agency has asked the government to set up a special commission to check the toll road operations.
Under the mechanism of road toll management for the Dushanbe-Khujand-Chanak highway that was introduced on April 1, vehicles are charged per kilometer; cars, trucks with load capacity of up to two tons and buses with no more than 19 seats pay 30 dirams (0.3 somoni) per kilometer, while trucks with load capacity of 2 to 7 tons and buses with 20 to 39 seats pay 60 dirams per kilometer, and trucks with load capacity of 7 to 14 tons and buses with more than 40 seats pay 1.50 somoni per kilometer. Heavy trucks with load capacity of 14 and more tons pay 1.88 somoni per kilometer. In all, seven toll service stations will be built on this highway.
