TIRANA, Sept. 3 – The Albanian government has announced it will select the winning company that will operate a 114-km highway segment linking Albania to Kosovo on October 15, making it Albania’s first toll road probably by early next year.
Transport Minister Edmond Haxhinasto says drivers are expected to pay Euro 5 tolls during the 35-year concession to upgrade, operate and maintain the 114 Milot-Morine segment, part of the so-called Highway of Nation.
“There are four foreign companies in the race and on October 15 we will have the winner on the management and the completion of the Highway of Nation. Calculations have been made on a Euro 5 toll including VAT which is lower than average regional fees,” Haxhanisto said in a TV interview.
The Albanian government says it will favour the company that will request the lowest amount of subsidies considering that the winning bidder will have to invest 38 to 43 million dollars to complete the highway which still lacks proper maintenance.
“The main objective of this works and services concession/public-private partnership project is upgrading the highway and its effective operation and maintenance. The concessionaire will be subject to a set of predefined performance standards over a 30-year concession term,” says the tender announcement.
“The concessionaire will collect and keep toll revenue and in exchange it will be responsible to implement and finance motorway improvement measures, construct a new bridge on Drini River in Kukes, northeastern Albania and carry out emergency geotechnical and stabilization works, says the transport and infrastructure ministry.
The highway is part of the national roads network and constitutes the largest road engineering project in Albania’s history. Linking Milot, approximately 60 km northeast of the Adriatic Port of Durres, with Morine at the Kosovo border, the route forms the central section of the wider Albania-Kosovo highway, connecting Durres with the Kosovo capital Prishtina.
The Kosovo government is also planning to introduce tolls for its highway to Albania which is expected to make travel to the two neighboring countries much more expensive.
The Albanian government says it plans to extend the toll system in other road segments in order to guarantee maintenance and standards and cut its budget costs.
The concession which now seems on track had been delayed for a couple of years because of lack of legal framework for toll roads, which were approved only in mid-2014.
“We are examining to build some road segments under public private partnerships. The state budget cannot afford works such as the Durres-Kukes highway which needs another $200 million,” said Economy Minister Arben Ahmetaj last July introducing the bill which targets public-private partnerships on the construction and maintenance of roads due to rising costs.
Operational since June 2009, the Durres-Kukes highway and its 5.5 km twin-bore Thirre tunnel is estimated to cost government around 4 million euros annually in maintenance.
“Road tolling offers the possibility of raising additional revenue for the road sector, and provides a dedicated source of finance for a particular road. Revenue from tolling is also independent from the annual budgetary process, and therefore increases the stability of road sector revenues, though toll revenues remain exposed to traffic risk,” says London-Based EBRD which is supporting the Albanian government in the reform of the road sector.
The Durres-Kukes highway, which is estimated to have cost Albania a staggering Euro 1 billion became fully open to traffic only in October 2010. Its major 60 km Rreshen-Kalimash segment was built by Bechtel-Enka, a US-Turkish consortium.
