The Bulgarian government is considering inviting investors to help it develop an electronic system for truck tolls. The project, which is worth up to US$648.26 million, will be developed on a public-private partnership (PPP) basis.
"We are looking for heavyweights, partners capable of making a serious investment of 200, 300, maybe 500 million euro, depending on the estimated cost of building such a system," Lilyana Pavlova told reporters at the Southeast Europe Business Forum.
The cost of the toll, which will be payable only by trucks transiting the country via major roads, will be tied to the distance travelled and not to the time spent on Bulgarian territory, Pavlova added.
The tolling system is most likely to be introduced first on the planned highway between Ruse, on the Danube, and Svilengrad, on the Turkish border, for which Bulgaria is holding talks with Qatar. However, this is unlikely to happen in less than three or four years, as the implementation of such a big investment project takes time, Pavlova said.
