Mozambique: Inhambane province toll revenue drops as drivers resort to ‘escape routes’

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Mozambique: Inhambane province toll revenue drops as drivers resort to ‘escape routes’

1:13 CAT | 22 Jul 2024

FILE - For illustration purposes only. [File photo: Rádio Moçambique]

The volume of revenue from road toll fees has dropped in Inhambane province, southern Mozambique, due to the use of ‘escape routes’ by some motorists.

In the first half of this year, the four road toll sections in Inhambane (Save, Mapinhane, Malova and Nhacundela) collected 100 million meticais (US$1.56 million), compared to nearly 176 million meticais (US$2.75 million) in the same period of last year.

According to Inês Ernesto, from the Road Fund in Inhambane, cited by Rádio Moçambique, some transporters bypass the toll fee collection points at the Malova and Mapinhane tolls with the help of the local population.

Toll rates range between 50 to 1,000 meticais (the US dollar costs 63.8 meticais), but truck drivers, primarily, use detours, paying land owners 300 meticais to bypass the tolls.

Inês Ernesto said that the situation was known to the Road Fund, which had been working with local authorities to prevent motorists from avoiding tolls. She said that the police had even been called to intervene, but that the parallel tolls start operating again as soon as they left.

Ernesto said that the payment of toll fees was important because the revenue collected was used to improve access roads, especially National Road Number One, where around 60 kilometres between Chissibuca and Lindela had already been rehabilitated.

Source: AIM Moçambique