Govt plans to collect tolls on 4 highways

Vehicles on four major national highways will have to pay tolls as the government looks to mobilise more funds for repair and maintenance work for the network of roads and highways.

The issue of collecting tolls from important national highways was discussed at the monthly coordination meeting of the Road Transport and Highways Division (RTHD), under the road transport and bridges ministry.

The meeting, held on January 30, decided that steps would be taken to collect tolls from the important highways, as per the minutes.

Subsequently, the RTHD has directed the Roads and Highways Department (RHD) to take necessary measures for collecting tolls from vehicles on "important highways", The Daily Star has learnt from officials informed with the proceedings.

In the first phase, the Dhaka-Chattogram, the Dhaka-Rangpur, the Dhaka-Sylhet and the Sylhet-Tamabil highways have been shortlisted for toll collection, they said.

Tolls have to be collected from the highways for their maintenance, said ABM Amin Ullah Nuri, secretary of the division who presided over the meeting.

"So, we will turn the important highways into toll roads once the ongoing expansion works on those highways are complete," he told The Daily Star last night.

The first to begin toll collection would be the Dhaka-Rangpur Highway, whose ongoing expansion works are scheduled for completion this year, said Zikrul Hassan, superintending engineer (maintenance circle) of RHD.

Spots for setting up toll booths have already been identified.

Toll booths and other infrastructure for collecting tolls will be established under a separate package of the Elenga-Rangpur expansion project, he told The Daily Star yesterday.

The RHD is implementing a Tk 18,678.62 crore project for turning the 190km road from Tangail's Elenga to Rangpur into a four-lane highway with service lanes.

It has already completed the expansion of a 70km road from Gazipur's Joydebpur to Elenga into a four-lane road with service lanes.

The RHD is also implementing two separate projects for turning the Dhaka-Sylhet and the Sylhet-Tamabil highways into four-lane roads with service lanes.

The deadline for the Tk 16,918.59 crore Dhaka-Sylhet highway project is December 2026, while the deadline for the Tk 3,583.25 crore Sylhet-Tamabil highway is June 2025.

The road authority is currently carrying out maintenance works on the Dhaka-Chattogram Highway and a study to determine whether the most important highway should be six or eight lanes wide.

Besides, tolls would be introduced on the Bhanga-Benapole and Bhanga-Barishal highways and the Dhaka Bypass Road after completion of their expansion works, reads the meeting minutes.

Meanwhile, the road transport and bridges ministry has taken the initiative to amend the Toll Policy 2014 so that the toll rates for the highways, bridges and expressways can be adjusted every year in line with inflation like in the other neighbouring countries.

As per the existing policy, the toll rate can be adjusted after every three years.

The draft of the Toll Policy-2024 prepared by the RTHD has been uploaded on its website for public opinion.

The RHD has also sent a proposal to the RTHD for carrying out a study to prepare a complete tolling guideline.

The Asian Development Bank is expected to fund the study as a grant under the Dhaka-Sylhet highway expansion project, according to AK Mohammad Fazlul Karim, the project director.

As per the proposal, the study will identify which roads should be turned into toll roads, determine the structures needed for toll collections and some other issues, he said.

"We are working on how to implement the prime minister's directive to collect tolls from important highways gradually," RHD Chief Engineer Syed Moinul Hasan told The Daily Star yesterday.

In September 2019, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, at an Ecnec meeting, instructed the authorities concerned to collect tolls from long-haul vehicles on the national highways.

The planned move to impose tolls, however, is not welcomed by a passenger welfare organisation.

"People are already suffering because of the high price of essentials, and the imposition of tolls on vehicles will make people's sufferings worse as it would increase transport costs," said Mozammel Hoque Chowdhury, secretary general of Bangladesh Jatri Kalyan Samity.

Besides, thousands of people are getting killed every year to due unsafe roads and the imposition of tolls without making the roads safer will be a double blow, he added.

The Bangladesh Road Transport Owners Association is yet to be notified formally about the move, said Khandaker Enayet Ullah, its secretary general.

"We will give our opinion if sought. However, as per the practice, if a toll is imposed, it would be adjusted with the fare of the transport," he added.

Under the 22,476-kilometre road networks of RHD, 3,991km are national highways, 4,897km are regional highways and 13,588km are district roads, according to its annual report for fiscal 2022-23.

The RHD is currently collecting tolls on the 55km Dhaka Mawa-Bhanga Expressway, the two-lane 50km Hatikumrul-Bonpara highway, the 13.7km Chattogram Port Access Road and the 74km Dhaka-Sylhet highway between Jagadishpur and Sherpur.