A contract to build a toll system in Bulgaria has been signed

Road Infrastructure Agency signed a contract for the building of a toll system with the Austrian company “Kapsch Telematik Technologies Bulgaria”, which won the public tender with a price of 150 million euro.

Currently, Bulgaria is the only country in the EU where cars carry the main burden of maintaining the road network, as revenue from passenger car vignettes significantly exceeds revenue earned from heavy goods vehicle vignettes. The toll system aims to reverse this ratio, as trucks will be charged much more (an increase of around 6-7 times in revenue from truck fees is expected), while car vignette prices will not change.

Toll system fees will be paid only by heavy goods vehicles with a gross combination mass exceeding 3.5 tonnes (trucks, buses, etc.). Payments will be made at dedicated terminals, which will have mobile devices and gauges for detecting weight, mass and route.

All other motor vehicles will buy an electronic vignette, that is, there will no longer be a sticker you need to stick to the glass. The electronic vignette is an electronic payment, which is related to the vehicle registration number. It will be available for purchase at 500 electronic terminals located all over Bulgaria.

At present, according to the public tender conditions, the toll system should cover 16,000 km of roads, which would include all highways, first-class and second-class roads, as well as most of the third-class ones. According to the Minister of Regional Development and Public Works, however, the toll system will sooner include 8,000 km of national roads, with third-class roads not being included.

The deadline for the implementation of the project is 19 months, but after 7 months the initial version of the system should be ready, meaning the information centers, vendor terminals, mobile devices and the rest of the infrastructure should already be built. The remaining 12 months will be for audits, assessments, and adjustments. Payments under this system will start from the beginning of next year.