Sheladia Associates, Inc.

The Afghanistan government is in the process of establishing a tax regime, a process that may take a few more years to fully implement. In the meantime, tolling is an effective way to generate much-needed revenue for road maintenance. In the future, when the tax regime is in place, a combination of taxes and tolls may also be used for road sector funding. To support the Government’s plan to implement a toll system, the ADB approved an Advisory TA to provide technical assistance within the Emergency Road Rehabilitation project. SHELADIA addressed the following institutional and implementation aspects for implementation of a toll system for the Kabul-Kandahar-Spin Boldak Road and submitted its proposal:

• Equitable and optimum toll structure
• Enabling legal framework
• Toll collection and administration
• Operation and maintenance of the road
• Fund allocation and financial control
• Stakeholder participation and performance audit.

Brief Description of Services Provided
The study was intended to assist the government in taking necessary actions to implement a toll system for the newly rehabilitated Kabul-Kandahar-Spin Boldak road to generate sufficient funds for timely routine and periodic road maintenance. The study results provided sufficient information for the government to make choices and decide on a tolling strategy and levels. In order to develop a rationally structured tolling strategy and toll levels, a detailed financial analysis was performed including traffic assessment and forecasts, O&M requirements and costs, impact of overloading, using toll charges to control overloading, capital cost recovery potential, and toll rates in relation to travel cost and savings to road users. Major activities of the study included:

• Review of the available relevant reports and documents

Review of and discussions on possible financing mechanisms for operations and maintenance (O&M) of the Kabul-Kandahar-Spin Boldak road, through toll collection, including:

• Review of available traffic data and likely development of traffic over the near to middle term
• Review and recommendations for possible toll structure for different categories of traffic and types of vehicle
• Identification of possible toll levels and estimation of revenue earning potential
• Development of preliminary proposals for management and operation of the road toll scheme
• Assessment of O&M requirements and costs
• Financial evaluation
• Systems options for toll collection and loading control.
• Appropriate legal, institutional and operational framework to be put in place.

SHELADIA reviewed toll collection and load control systems in use in the USA and recommended using weigh-in motion systems for load control along with a manually operated toll collection system.