KHUJAND, May 15, 2010, Asia-Plus — Innovative Road Solutions Ltd (IRS) that manages the Dushanbe-Khujand-Chanak highway officially opened two toll plazas in Sughd province on May 14.
However, introduction of toll payments for the highway in the province has been postponed until May 20 at the request of the Sughd authorities, Mirzoali Mansourov, the IRS regional manager, told Asia-Plus on Saturday.
In Sughd province, the toll plazas were installed on the 237th kilometer (the toll plaza Istaravshan) and on the 302nd kilometer (the toll plaza Chorukh) of the highway.
In all, four toll service stations will be constructed in northern Tajikistan, Mansourov said. “One toll plaza, Dehmoy, will be installed on the 285th kilometer and the other one, Shahriston, will be installed on the 178th kilometer,” he noted.
The regional manager refrained from giving tariff data details. “The tariffs are still being developed and payments may be reduced,” Mansourov said.
We will recall that the Dushanbe-Khujand-Chanak highway has been reconstructed by Chinese companies and paid for with a US$280 million loan from China. The Tajik government announced that in order to repay the loan the highway would become a toll road. The first two toll plazas were installed n the highway in the Varzob district on April 1.
Residents of 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. Residents of the Mastchoh district also noted at a meeting with IRS’s representatives on May 11 that they are against the toll for the highway.
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.
