Tolls Will Only Be Levied on Trucks – Road Infrastructure Agency Head

Lazar Lazarov, Chair of the Management Board of Bulgaria’s Road Infrastructure Agency, photo by BGNES

Lazar Lazarov, Chairman of the Management Board of the Roads Infrastructure Agency, has assured that tolls will only be levied on heavy goods vehicles.

In a Wednesday interview for the morning broadcast of bTV, Lazarov informed that toll revenue would go to road maintenance.
He said that the new tolls were expected to take effect in 2018.

Lazarov emphasized that tolls would not be levied on cars, adding that the rates paid by car drivers at present would remain unchanged for a very long period of time.

He noted that the rate of the toll fee on heavy goods vehicles had not been decided yet as experts from the World Bank were conducting an analysis into the sphere.

Lazarov suggested, however, that a rate of BGN 0.10 per kilometer, which was announced by Regional Development Minister Lilyana Pavlova, was unrealistic.

He underscored that toll revenue would be spent on road maintenance and not on road construction, meaning that the tariffs would be much lower than currently suggested.

The Road Infrastructure Agency head pointed out that an EU Directive envisaged the introduction of this type of fees after 2017, meaning that it was expected to take place in 2018 in Bulgaria.

He explained that road maintenance expenses were based on the price of materials, meaning that the repair works had a very similar price tag in the different countries.

Lazarov claimed, however, that the low living standards in Bulgaria made road maintenance appear costly.
He said that there was no way to make road maintenance cheaper.

We need your support so Novinite.com can keep delivering news and information about Bulgaria! Thank you!