Belarus’ toll road network to grow larger as from 1 August

MINSK, 14 July (BelTA) – The network of toll roads in Belarus will grow larger by 256km as from 1 August, BelTA learned from the press service of BelToll, the national digital road toll collection system.

As from 1 August road toll will also be collected for the passage in some sections of the motorways M5 Minsk-Gomel, M6 Minsk-Grodno, M7 Minsk – the Lithuanian border and R1 Minsk-Dzerzhinsk. As a result, the total length of toll roads in Belarus will reach 1,189km.

The second stage of BelToll’s deployment also envisages the opening of eight customer service points, including in Minsk, Grodno, Shchuchin, Oshmyany, and Maryina Gorka.

The company IOOO Kapsch Telematic Services expects the expansion of the toll road network to increase the overall number of registered vehicles by roughly 10-15%, bringing the total number to 200,000.

Sergei Buryi, manager for public relations of IOOO Kapsch Telematic Services, which is the company in charge of operating BelToll, told BelTA: “We have reached the designed capacity. At present the system works the way it was supposed to and corresponds to the design”. If malfunctions or off-normal situations emerge, they are promptly addressed, he assured. In his words, at present Belarusian road toll users commit roughly ten times fewer road toll passage violations than they did shortly after the BelToll system went commercial. Despite the fact the company has a division dedicated to looking into complaints and dealing with matters of dispute. “We take care of every petition individually,” stressed Sergei Buryi.

BelToll is a digital system designed to collect road toll by using a specialized short-range radio technology, which allows collecting road toll from road users without their having to stop. The system went commercial in Belarus on 1 August 2013.

In line with Belarus president decree No.426 vehicles registered in the Customs Union member states (Belarus, Russia, Kazakhstan) with the admissible total weight of 3.5 tonnes and less are exempt from road toll. Free passage is granted to Belarus-registration scooters and motorbikes, wheeled tractors and self-propelled vehicles, emergency vehicles, and vehicles used for defense and law enforcement purposes. Road toll is not applicable to private bus companies involved in regular urban passenger transportation, vehicles used for emergency medical aid, mitigation of emergencies or the transportation of humanitarian cargoes.

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.