DUSHANBE, April 30, 2010, Asia-Plus — Tolls placed on the Dushanbe-Khujand-Chanak highway that runs through the Varzob district have bee lowered for residents of Varzob, Akbar Khojayev, the deputy director of the Antimonopoly Commission under the Government of Tajikistan, announced at a news conference on April 30.
We will that under the mechanism of road roll 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. To-date, two toll stations have been built on this highway connecting the center and the north of Tajikistan. In all, seven toll service stations will be built on this highway.
According to Khojayev, car owners from Varzob now pay 10 dirams per kilometer, while tariffs for other types of vehicles remain the same.
The Antimonopoly Commission official added that tools were still placed on a 50-kilometer section of the highway.
“The Varzob district administration has submitted the list of cars of residents of the district to Innovative Road Solutions Ltd (IRS), the company that manages this highway, and tolls will be collected in accordance with this list,” Khojayev said, noting that some 1,400 cars have been listed.
He added that the road roll management mechanism for a 200-kilometr section of the highway in Sughd province will be introduced on May 19.
Zoirsho Qosimov, chief financial officer of IRS’s branch in Tajikistan, refused to give any information about the company, the date and place of registration of it and its founders.
The IRS’s branch deputy director Rustam Abdulloyev told reporters that the company allegedly had an experience of work in dozens of countries around the world. However, he found difficulty in naming at least one of those countries.
According to him, the Government of Tajikistan has concluded a concession agreement with Innovative Road Solutions Ltd because it had no choice. “The degree of complexity of the Dushanbe-Khujand-Chanak highway is III-IV. It is a very dangerous road, and therefore, nobody wanted to work here,” Abdulloyev said.
He added that the company intended to invest 2 million U.S. dollars in the highway in the near future and another 25 million U.S. dollars would be invested until the end of 2011. These funds will be used for purchasing appropriate equipment to maintain the highway, Abdulloyev said.
As it had been reported earlier, 10,000 residents of 16 settlements located along the Dushanbe-Khujand-Chanak highway on April 22 released an open letter to President Emomali Rahmon over a mechanism of road toll management for the highway that was introduced on April 1 this year. They, in particular, noted that tariff set for the highway was unacceptable for the population. Moreover, if there is no alternative road, introduction of the toll road is in contrary with all international standards and may negatively impact the country’s economy, the letter said.
