WB: Azerbaijan eyes reducing road network deterioration rate

Over the last twenty years, the increase in the vehicles in Azerbaijan has averaged about 12.5 percent per annum, and traffic on major road corridors has increased accordingly, Report informs, referring to the WB.

To sustain the vital role of road transport in the economy, the Government of Azerbaijan wishes to enhance its focus on the road network’s capacity and quality to ensure higher mobility, reliability, and safety.

Between 2008 and 2018, the share of freight transport by road increased from 48 to 65 percent, and passenger transport by road increased from 83 to 88 percent.

The government of Azerbaijan embarked on a major highway reconstruction program in the early 2000s. This started with improvements to the East-West corridor (M2 highway Baku to the Georgian border and M4 highway Baku to Yevlakh) and the North-South corridor (M1 highway Baku to the Russian border, and M3 highway Alat to the Iranian border highway). In parallel, rehabilitation works for other highways (M category roads) were launched.

"The completion of the program to reconstruct and rehabilitate all M category roads is scheduled for 2021. While upgrading of the highways is close to completion, reconstruction of lower road networks, and particularly the tertiary roads (Y category roads), is still underway. By the end of 2019, the share of roads in good and fair condition reached 83 percent for the secondary network and 47 percent for local roads," the bank noted.

The bank believes that the Salyan-Bilasuvar road’s rehabilitation as part of the new Regional Connectivity and Development Project allows the realization of government plans to toll the parallel M3 motorway.

"National legislation prohibits road tolling without the availability of functional alternative roads, and the project road will provide that alternative route. Over time, this will reduce the burden on the state budget for maintenance of the corridor," the WB experts added.

The WB believes that additional revenue is needed to address the maintenance backlog and improve the sector’s financial sustainability. The government of Azerbaijan is interested in adopting user-pays principles and introducing road user charges (RUC) as a means to enhance financial sustainability. In parallel, the Azerbaijan government wishes to reduce the rate of deterioration of the road network and recognizes that operational efficiencies could be improved through better enforcement of axle load controls.

Since 2001, the WB has allocated about $1.1 billion to implement three projects for the reconstruction of highways in Azerbaijan.