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Vazny: Some Hauliers Don’t Want Tolls at All
Thursday 28 January 2010 Zoom in | Print page
Bratislava/Hanoi, January 28 (TASR) – Some hauliers are trying to prevent any form of toll collection on Slovakia's roads, said Slovak Transport Minister Lubomir Vazny in Vietnam on Thursday.
Vazny is currently in Hanoi, where he is accompanying Parliamentary Chairman Pavol Paska on an official visit that will last until January 31.
The minister added that negotiations with the disgruntled hauliers are continuing and that only time will tell how they will be concluded. "I'm convinced that the technical problems that have been announced have all been eliminated now, but it seems that there is no will to resolve the tolls under normal circumstances and that there is ... an effort to make sure that tolls won't be introduced at all," said Vazny in reaction to the actions of the Union of Slovak Road Hauliers (UNAS), which blocked main traffic arteries into Bratislava earlier this month and announced on Wednesday afternoon that it would go on strike as of February 1 if its basic demands aren't met.
Commenting on a demand to limit tolls on first-class roads, Vazny said that this could lead to hauliers overusing such roads, resulting in devastation. "We really have a problem with this, but we're continuing with negotiations. We've offered negotiations to all hauliers. Time will tell how this will develop," added Vazny.
UNAS called on the Transport Ministry last week to mothball the collection of road-tolls until the end of April 2010, and to amend the system of toll collection so that hauliers pay only for fully-traversed sections of tolled motorways and other roads.
After negotiations on Thursday with representatives of road hauliers, the National Highway Company (NDS) and road-toll system provider SkyToll, Prime Minister Robert Fico said that the road-toll system will not be re-launched to its full extent on February 1 after further amendments are made, but a few days later.
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