It was proposed to increase tolls for passing through tunnels on the Bishkek-Osh highway in the Road Fund (DF) of the Ministry of Transport and Communications of the Kyrgyz Republic in the fall of 2022. The reason is that the current tariffs were approved in 2004 and have not been revised since then. At the same time, the cost of operating debit facilities has increased significantly over the past 20 years.
According to the calculations of the DF, the tariff should have increased by 5 to 80 soms, depending on the type of car and the country in which it was registered.
The new draft government decree, submitted for public debate in April 2023, differs from the previous one by a more detailed description of the vehicles. We speak, for example, of cars “used for the transport of passengers and having, in addition to the driver’s seat, no more than eight seats” or “intended for the transport of goods and having a technically permissible maximum mass greater than 12 tonnes “.
In addition, the new edition introduced “trailers with a technically permissible maximum mass of more than 3.5 tons, but not more than 10 tons” and “extra-large tractors with a maximum design speed not exceeding 40 km/h. Characterized by large dimensions and designed specifically for the treatment of large agricultural surfaces (harvesters)”.
As for the size of the tariff, the tariff specified in the new version of the resolution practically does not differ from last year’s proposal of the Road Fund. For example, for cars, minivans, SUVs registered in the republic, the increase will be five soms, and for the same vehicles with foreign and transit license plates, it will increase to 200 soms.
Most – 5,000 soms – will be paid by drivers driving combines and foreign-registered trucks to haul large loads.
According to the Road Fund of the Ministry of Transport of the Kyrgyz Republic, the receipt of funds resulting from collection from drivers for passing through tunnels on the Bishkek-Osh road amounted to about 65 million soms in 2019, 71.2 million in 2020, and 117 million in 2021. Such a dynamic, as the fund notes, is explained by an increase in the number of cars passing through tunnels. In 2020, the number of vehicles exceeded one million, and in 2021 – 1.5 million units.
- After the approval of the new tariffs, an increase in financial resources of 44% is expected. Based on the calculations, it was found that the cost of maintaining the tunnels after the introduction of an automated fare collection system in 2018 is about 130 million som per year, the DF explained.
Help “RG”
The Bishkek – Osh highway is one of the busiest in Kyrgyzstan. The road is of strategic importance, as it connects the south and the north of the republic. The decision to build the highway was made by the USSR Council of Ministers in 1956. In the fall of the same year, a 16th special department was created to implement the grandiose project.
Construction work began in 1957. Over the next eight years, builders completed more than 10 million cubic meters of earthworks, erected 97 bridges, laid 924 culverts with a total length of 13 kilometers and installed six tunnels. ‘avalanche.
At the same time, the most famous of the five highway tunnels was built – the 2.5-kilometer tunnel named after Kusain Kolbaev (the first minister of motor transport and highways of the Kyrgyz SSR), which has was commissioned in 1964.
According to experts, it was a unique construction in the highlands, which had no analogues in the Soviet Union. Almost half of the work was carried out at an altitude of two to three thousand meters above sea level.
Read the Latest Science and Technology News Today on The Eastern Herald.
