Toll road

Greek authorities on Wednesday said they were imposing stringent controls at national highway toll stations, ports and other long-distance travel stations to prevent city residents from travelling to the countryside ahead of the Greek Orthodox Easter.

Highway traffic has dropped considerably in the last few days as a result of the shuttering of schools and businesses and citizens choosing to stay at home to contain the spread of the coronavirus.

Bus carriers and road hauliers threatened with a false start of the toll system on March 1st. The road transport companies have not bought on-board devices and are refusing to pay a rental fee, which will cost them BGN 15 million a year. They also asked for a postponement for the introduction of the toll system.

The government will satisfy the demands of the carriers and the TOLL system will start with lower tariffs. Only the motorways and first-class roads will be covered by the TOLL system, and the second-class roads will be toll-free.

This became clear after a meeting of the protesting carriers with Prime Minister Boyko Borissov, which lasted 3 hours.

54,067 vehicles were registered by the traffic cameras of Trakia Motorway at the exit of Sofia on September 20 - the last business day before the three weekend days for the Independence Day. Of these, 28 712 were traveling to Burgas and 25 355 vehicles were heading for Sofia, Road Infrastructure Agency (RIA) traffic cameras at the exit of Sofia report showed.

About BGN 600 million is expected as revenue from the toll system, Prof. Oleg Asenov of the National Toll Administration said at a press conference at the Research Institute of Construction, Focus News Agency reported.

The toll system will be put into exploitation with a trial period which starts today.

The cameras which will detect the traveled distance are already installed. 

The TOLL system starts the testing today, however, the actual collection of the charges for trucks over 3 tonnes and a half will start in March next year.

From 4 to 6 pm on August 14, 2019, are planned activities to implement updates of the electronic toll collection system on a time and distance basis.

From 4 to 6 pm on August 14, 2019, are planned activities to implement updates of the electronic toll collection system on a time and distance basis.

The money will finance the activities of the specialized unit "National Toll Management", writes NOVA TV. 

The government has allocated an additional BGN 89 998 200 under the budget of the Ministry of Regional Development and Public Works for 2019 to finance the activities of a specialized unit of National Toll Management, BGNES reported.