Thirteen provinces in East and Central China have canceled tolls on their second-class highways, bringing a surge of traffic flow on most second-class highways, the Xinhua News Agency reported yesterday.

Thirteen provinces in East and Central China have canceled tolls on their second-class highways, bringing a surge of traffic flow on most second-class highways.[CFP]

Since the release of the plan in February, 13 provinces including Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Hebei and Hunan have canceled tolls on second-class highways and removed 1,420 toll stations, said He Jianzhong, spokesman for the Ministry of Transport.

The plan is a complementary policy to the country's oilprice and tax reform.

The road sections that used to collect tolls have seen an upsurge in traffic flows, with highways in Shandong, Anhui, Heilongjiang and Fujian provinces recording a 30 percent increase in traffic.

"All toll stations and tollgates falling in this category were removed," He said.

"People, particularly car owners and drivers, are happy with the result because it can increase traffic efficiency and reduce transport costs," he said.

The plan has received much support from drivers. China has the longest toll-road network in the world.

"Although Xi'an has not implemented the plan yet, the idea that the government is going to promote it nationwide reinforces my determination to stick to this trade," Zhao Wenzhan, a Xi'an coach driver, told the Global Times.

"Up to a 200-yuan ($29) toll must be paid at each toll station. No passengers are willing to pay the fee, so it's drivers who are forced to bear the toll expenses, and that was a big burden to us, so all my peers are happy with the plan," he said.

Another driver from Heilongjiang Province surnamed Cao told the Global Times that the plan was effective and beneficial.

"Since the plan took effect in May, all toll stations on second-class roads in our province disappeared. My transport costs have come down by at least 5 percent," Cao said.

"In the past, I avoided driving on toll roads by taking detours," he said.

"Besides, I was annoyed by numerous illegal highway toll stations. They forced me to pay extra fees which ate into my profits," he said.

In a bid to boost highway construction, for which government investment was strained, since 1984 the central government had encouraged local areas to build high-quality roads with bank loans and charge motorists in order to repay the loans.

Toll stations and tollgates had mushroomed since then. At the same time, due to poor toll station management, illegal highway toll operations were also rampant.

Some local governments had used toll roads as an excuse to raise funds even after completion of repayment of loans for highway construction, the National Audit Office (NAO) said in a report released last year.

By the end of 2005, 14.9 billion yuan ($2.2 billion) had been collected from 158 illegal tollgates, while 8.2 billion yuan ($1.2 billion) was claimed from illegal toll-price rises, the NAO said on its website.

"Canceling road tolls is an inevitable trend for China in the long run. China should learn from the USA by making all its national highways toll-free to benefit the local people," Kong Yongjian, a professor specializing in road system management at Beijing Jiaotong University, told the Global Times.

"It is particularly beneficial during hard times such as the financial crisis. It can boost the regional economy by minimizing the cost of cross-town transportation," Kong said.

While praising the move, he also expressed some concerns about the plan.

"One downside of the plan is that local government may receive less toll revenue. Another problem is how to reemploy the staff from the canceled toll stations," he said.

"The local governments should make sure that the staff are properly redirected to posts such as maintaining rural roads so as not to create unemployment," he said.

(Global Times July 27, 2009)