The Ministry of Transport of Russia and the All-Russia People’s Front open a vote for freight forwarders on the definition of the most problematic sections of federal highways. The service is available on the website of the All-Russia People’s Front project “Map of Worn Down Roads”. Based on the survey conducted among HGV owners and drivers, the funds of the road fund collected using the state system “Platon” will be allocated for priority repairs of selected federal roads.
Evgeny Ditrikh, the First Deputy Minister of Transport of Russia, noted that this way of forming a road repair plan based on the opinion of freight forwarders ensures the fair distribution of funds contributed by users of the state system “Platon”. “The system itself is based on the “user pays” principle, and with the help of this vote, carriers will choose roads and will control what their funds are spent on,” Evgeny Ditrikh stressed.
The statistics of the “worn down roads” added to the map for the first seven weeks of the project showed that almost half of the drivers noted sections of urban highways, 35% – roads between cities, and 20% – rural roads. Now, the freight forwarders, when registering on the website of the project, can indicate that they are HGV drivers. Their votes and marked sections of federal highways will be automatically included in the “national rating” of highways, which will be repaired this year at the expense of funds from the “Platon” system.
“During the first 7 weeks of the “Maps of Worn Down Roads”, positive results were achieved. The local authorities included 78 roads on the All-Russia People’s Front interactive map in the repair plans. Now, there is an accessible and convenient tool for freight forwarders, for direct users of federal roads to choose the roads for repair at the expense of the fees they pay through the “Platon” system,” explained Alexander Vasiliev, the coordinator of the project “Road inspection by All-Russia People’s Front/ Map of Worn Down Roads”, the State Duma deputy.
The project “Map of Worn Down Roads” by All-Russia People’s Front collected more than 91 thousand votes; 8,859 roads with a total length of 10,233 km were added to the interactive map. At the same time, the project activists personally check the condition of the roads. In March, road raids passed through the cities of the Southern and North Caucasian federal districts. Now, in the near future, the activists of the project are planning to check the roads in the Central and North-Western Federal Districts.
The decision to organise a survey for HGV owners and drivers within the framework of the All-Russia People’s Front project “Map of Worn Down Roads” was taken following a meeting between Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Dmitry Medvedev and representatives of small and medium-sized businesses in the field of cargo transportation organised by the United Russia party. The Head of the Cabinet after discussion with the freight forwarders instructed the Ministry of Transport of Russia to send funds coming to the federal budget from the system “Platon” in 2017 solely for the development and restoration of the network of Russian federal highways.
Brief Information
The state system “Platon” was introduced in the territory of the Russian Federation on November 15, 2015. From this day, freight forwarders being owners of HGVs exceeding 12 tonnes of gross vehicle weight pay a fee for the use of the Russian federal highways. All funds collected using the “Platon” system are sent to the road fund every day. From April 15, 2017, the tariff will be 1.90 roubles per kilometre. The first funds collected by the “Platon” system in 2016 were spent on repair of more than 1,000 kilometres of the most problem roads in 40 cities and regions as well as on co-financing of the repair and construction of 31 bridges in 19 subjects of the Russian Federation.
The project of All-Russia People’s Front “Road inspection by All-Russia People’s Front/ Map of Worn Down Roads” is aimed at citizens’ participation in the formation of road policies in the regions and improving the quality of roads. The main tasks are the repair of roads taking into account the opinion of citizens and the elimination of road defects that affect the accident rate. The relevance of the project is due to the discontent of citizens with unsatisfactory state of roads, high level of accidents on the roads, as well as the inability for motorists to promptly report defects and the need to eliminate them. When planning road works, the authorities often do not take into account the opinion of citizens, as a result, roads that are considered necessary to be repaired by officials, rather than the public, fall into the repair plans.
