TIRANA, June 16 – The government’s inter-parliamentary group and the Milot-Morine road concession company concluded the negotiation process on the issue of Albania’s first toll road system by coming up with a concrete formula for preferential charging for Kukes residents, bus lines and frequent users.
Sources from the negotiation team said that all vehicles registered in the Kukes district will pay a one-way fee of 100 ALL with VAT. Kukes district road users will be able to pre-buy up to 44 passes a month with this reduced fee.
The fee reduction will also apply to public transport bus lines that make trips to and from the city of Kukes. Their toll road fee was also reportedly set at 100 lek with VAT for a one-way trip.
The third category of reduced fee beneficiaries is that of frequent road users, which includes both Albanian and Kosovo citizens who use the road on a daily basis. The principle in this case was to reduce the fee depending on the number of trips one takes, where the more one travels, the more is the fee reduced.
After conducting talks with Albanian and Kosovo business representatives, the government accepted their proposal to postpone resuming the toll road in the Nation’s Highway after the tourist season comes to an end.
It has been reported the Nation’s Highway toll road will resume on September 17.
The mitigation policies’ bill will pass over to the state budget, which will pay the concessionaire 48,5 million euros for 30 years.
Tolls ranging from €2.5 for motorcycles, to €5 for passenger cars, €11.2 for buses, and €16.2 and €22.5 for mid and high-tonnage trucks were described as too high by the Albanian and Kosovo business communities, who fear trade exchanges between the two ethnic Albanian countries could receive a severe blow.
This led to protests at the Nation’s Highway at the end of March which had protesters setting the toll collection booths on fire. A number of protesters were arrested after the incident.
Operational since 2009 on the Albanian side and from 2013 in Kosovo, the Highway of Nation linking the two countries has given a strong impetus to trade and human exchanges in the past decade.
