The Association of Infrastructure Investors and Lenders has proposed building toll roads in the Far East without free alternatives, sending an appeal to Deputy Prime Minister Yuri Trutnev. Candidate of Economic Sciences, Head of the Primorsky Laboratory of the Institute of Economic Research of the FEB RAS Maxim Krivelevich said in a comment to TASS that each such project should undergo a separate examination due to the risk of creating a monopoly.
According to current regulations, a toll road is permissible only if there is a free backup, the length of which does not exceed the toll section by more than three times. An exception is currently in place for the Far North, where only trucks are charged. AIIC proposes to extend this model to the Far Eastern Federal District, but Krivelevich insists: without a preliminary analysis of traffic flows, settlements risk being cut off from the main routes.
The expert also requires mandatory coordination with the legislative assemblies of the regions and granting them the right of veto. "Such decisions cannot be made only in Moscow - they must be made locally," he stressed. In fact, it is a choice between accelerated infrastructure development at private expense and maintaining free access to the road network for the local population.