The Head of the Recovery Agency, Serhiy Sukhomlin reported that his agency, together with the Ministry of Community and Territorial Development, is working on a model for introducing toll roads in Ukraine. According to him, concessionary roads may appear as early as 2-3 years after the end of the war.
The official recalled that this year’s budget for road maintenance provided for 4.6 billion hryvnias out of the required 52 billion. In his opinion, this situation forces the state to reconsider approaches to financing the maintenance and repair of highways, and the emergence of toll roads is only a matter of time, since during the further restoration of Ukraine, funds will be directed to other needs.
“After the end of the war, we will lack funds for the rapid restoration of Ukraine. There will still be priorities: social, restoration of destroyed settlements, front-line regions. These are all hundreds of billions of dollars, and there may simply be no funds to finance roads. Therefore, we will have no other option than to build concession roads,” Sukhomlyn emphasized.
According to the head of the Restoration Agency, several conditions must be met for the implementation of toll roads. These include the end of the war, replenishment of the road fund with finances, and the presence of a toll payment model. He emphasized that they are currently considering options under which a fee will be charged only for travel on a repaired and high-quality road.
“Almost nowhere in Europe are there free roads. There are different payment options: through special points on the roads, a separate tax. When a Ukrainian truck travels through Austria or Germany, it pays about 200 euros for one trip. And here it is free – except for the excise tax on fuel. Therefore, the transition to de facto toll roads is a matter of time”, — the official noted.
Sukhomlin said that toll roads will make it possible to attract investors who will be able to build them, and such a prospect will become real only 2-3 years after the end of the Russian Federation’s war against Ukraine.
