KHUJAND, May 12, 2010, Asia-Plus — Residents of the Mastchoh district in Sughd province have expressed disagreement with introduction of the toll road management mechanism for the Dushanbe-Chanak highway.
On Wednesday May 11, representatives from Tajikistan’s branch of Innovative Road Solutions Ltd (IRS), which manages the Dushanbe-Chanak highway, met with residents of a number of villages in the district.
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 beginning on May 14 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.”
We will recall that 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. 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.
