Govt To Introduce Highway Toll Fee

Transport and Infrastructure PS John Mosonik says the government has already identified the Thika superhighway and the Nairobi Southern Bypass as some of the major highways along which motorists will be charged toll fees.

Mosonik says the new charges will come into force from July next year.

This is the government’s second attempt at re-introducing toll stations after a similar plan was abandoned in 2011.

Mosonik says  a transaction advisor for the toll stations has already been contracted as maintaining the superhighways has become too expensive for the government. According to the permanent secretary, the toll charges will be uniform across the country but will be levied depending on the type of vehicle.

To fund future road infrastructure projects, the government says it will enter into public private partnerships under a deal where contractors will get letters of support from government in order to access funds and complete road projects in good time.

The agreement also proposes to have the contractors manage and maintain the roads for a period of 5 to 7 years.

The PS noted that the government has in the past struggled to meet a self-imposed target of constructing ten thousand kilometres of rural and urban roads  at a cost of 40 billion shillings annually.

So far the government has only managed to construct 400 kilometres of roads annually.

The PS says the government will complete a road re-classifying exercise in the next one month in order to end the confusion on just which roads should be maintained by the national government and which ones should be under the care of county governments.

By Wangui Ngechu