400 million JD for a project that imposes tolls on major roads

Al-Anbat-Noor Banihani

According to the executive program of the economic modernization vision for the years 2023–2025, the government has allocated 400 million JD for the implementation of toll road projects, which are based on the imposition of tolls for the use of main roads.

The Toll Roads project seeks to raise the quality of major roads in Jordan and achieve financial sustainability for them by imposing fees on their users.

The World Bank is studying financing a project proposed by the government entitled "Sustainable Financing of Roads by Charging Tolls on Road Users,"  as the study is still in the project design stage.

According to the proposal, the indicative value of project financing may reach $225 million for a project whose development goal is to "enhance the performance of the road network in Jordan and its financial sustainability by attracting private sector investment."

A 2019 World Bank report stated that the government is working to develop 14 main vital roads, 12 of which are expressways and two ring roads, with a total length of 1,379 km, representing 18% of the total road network in Jordan, with the aim of integrating them into its financial sustainability project by imposing fees on its users.

The report proposed a unified fee for tolls on Jordanian highways of 0.011 JD/km (0.015 USD/km) for cars and 0.022 JD/km (0.030 USD/km) for trucks.

The National Long-Term Transportation Strategy, issued in 2014, also proposed the imposition of tolls on highways in Jordan, limited to freight traffic in the medium term (2024), as a first step, which would have the benefit of collecting revenues to be used in road maintenance and improvement.

In the long term (2030), as a second implementation phase, the strategy proposed expanding the road toll system to include private vehicles as well.

And the strategy stated that this measure is effective in increasing the possibility of financing the transport sector, as it will increase the attraction of private investment in addition to being an effective way to direct part of the traffic towards the proposed railway.