Business news

MINSK, 27 January (BelTA) – Belarus will expand the network of toll roads under the BelToll system by more than 300km in 2015, Evgeny Rokalo, the head of the roads department at the Belarusian Ministry of Transport and Communications, said in an interview with BelTA.

"We are planning to install the electronic system on the section of the M5 motorway Zhlobin-Gomel, which opened after the reconstruction, the four-lane sections of the P21 highway Minsk-Mikashevichy and the P21 highway Vitebsk-the border of Russia,” said Evgeny Rokalo.

Currently the length of toll roads in Belarus is 1,189km. The state program for the development and maintenance of roads for the next five years reads that by 2020 the toll road system will include 1,968km of highways in Belarus.

Evgeny Rokalo pointed out that in general the information on what roads will make part of the system is envisaged in the contract concluded with the investor that is developing the digital toll collection system BelToll. "Certainly, in the course of the project there emerge additional factors that require being reflected in the investment contract. This work is carried out in a routine manner,” he added.

BelToll, a digital system designed to collect road toll by using a specialized short-range radio technology, went commercial in Belarus on 1 August 2013. On 1 August 2014 the system was expanded to include the sections of the M5/E30 Minsk-Gomel, M6 Minsk-Grodn0, M7 Minsk-border with the Republic of Lithuania and P1 Minsk-Dzerzhinsk.

The state enterprise Belavtostrada is the owner of the digital road toll collection system. The company IOOO Kapsch Telematic Services is in charge of operating the BelToll system in Belarus. The Transport Inspection of the Belarusian Transport and Communications Ministry is in charge of auditing the collection of road toll on toll roads.