Five contenders for Greece’s new electronic tolling system installation project

The tender for the new electronic tolling system was completed successfully yesterday with 5 contenders. According to Ypodomes.com safe sources, the 5 participations are as follow: 1. VINCI-TERNA-KAPSCH, 2. STRABAG, 3. MITILINEOS with a Hungarian company, 4. OTE and 5. INTRASOFT-ELLAKTOR-INTRAKAT-AUTOSTRADE. According to the same sources, the full composition of the figures will be known next week.

Upon the completion of the Expression of Interest stage, we will pass to the next phase of the tender, where interested parties will be invited to submit their technical and financial offers, out of which, the”golden” contractor for the 400 million-euro project will emerge.

The process is expected to be completed by the end of the year while the first operation of the system will start in 2019 and become fully functional in 2020. The electronic-satellite system, that our country is going to establish, is currently only available in 4 European countries: Germany, Slovakia, Hungary and Belgium.

The new tolling system

As sources from the Ministry of Infrastructure say, we will have a “double” tolling system. For cars, a video tolling system will be used to record the vehicles upon their entrance and exit from the motorway system, while there will be sensors at every interchange.

The charge will be based on mileage and will be connected to each car’s license plate. If toll charges are paid instantly, e.g. from a connected bank account, the vehicle’s details will be also erased momentarily. The purchase of kilometres or just “air” monetary value will be even possible through a special app for smartphones.

For trucks, the installation of a special transceiver (very much similar to the ones currently in use) will be made mandatory, allowing satellite tracking. With the use of this system, each truck will be constantly recorded while it uses the road network and will be charged accordingly. An interesting piece of information is that discount policies will remain at the concessionaires’ discretion.

It is also very interesting that vehicles coming from abroad will be also charged. Drivers will have to purchase a special sign and trucks the same, above-mentioned pay-as-you-go charging device, that will incur the expected charges, billed on their way out of the country, unless the future contractor builds a compatible tolling system with other countries too. A surge in the revenues is expected here, especially in the case of Egnatia Motorway which serves as a main axis of the East to the Balkans and Western Europe, meaning that the era of “free ridership” is almost over.

 

Nikos Karagiannis-ypodomes.com

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