ASTANA, May 23. /TASS/. The length of toll roads in Kazakhstan will increase this year by two and a half times – from 3,900 km to 10,100 km, Minister of Transport of the Republic Marat Karabayev told reporters after a meeting in the Senate (upper house) of the Parliament of Kazakhstan.
“Currently, we have [toll] sections with a total length of 3,900 km, this year we will additionally introduce 6,200 km. These are all the sections that we completed [to repair and reconstruct] last year, special cameras are now being installed on them,” he said.
Karabayev added that sections of the Astana-Alma-Ata and Ust-Kamenogorsk-Taldykorgan highways will become toll roads.
“Toll sections are an absolute necessity to prevent the roads from reaching the state they were in a couple of years ago. We have 25,000 km of highways on our territory, which is a very long stretch, and maintaining them requires separate funds,” the minister explained.
The minister also noted that all the money that comes into the treasury from tolls will be used to maintain the roads, and the department will transfer all roads to “self-maintenance” next year and refuse additional funds that are allocated from the budget for the road sector.
The saved funds will be spent on social needs. Karabayev added that last year a total of 48 billion tenge ($94.9 million) was received, of which 9 billion tenge ($17.8 million) was from passenger cars, 39 billion tenge ($77 million) was “from the activities of trucks, and mainly from foreign ones.”
Payment for travel on roads in Kazakhstan is mainly made automatically without collection points – cameras record passing cars and write off funds from an account, which can be filled in advance or a few days after the trip. There is a corresponding sign before entering the toll section. For non-payment of travel, a fine of up to $40 is provided for individuals, and up to $80 for legal entities, which is significantly higher than the cost of travel.
