Toll roads in Turkey: Private versus public. Issue 2 (June 2022) - Solak, Ali Osman
Highlights: Private concessionaires have completed a total length of 1364 km of motorways under PPP. Turkey has both publicly and privately operated toll roads. Tolls on BOT roads are very high compared to KGM roads. Private financing does not seem to be the right way to close the road infrastructure gap. Abstract: The main objective of this paper is to compare the toll rates on publicly and privately financed toll roads in Turkey. Public toll roads have reasonable toll rates and generate revenues that cover their costs, but public funds are not sufficient to expand the network. Private toll roads, on the other hand, have relatively high toll rates, resulting in low traffic volumes. This places a significant burden on the budget due to traffic-revenue guarantees. Turkish case shows that PPPs lead to higher tolls, resulting in the underutilization of infrastructure and efficiency losses. In the long run, traditional public financing seems to be the better option for toll road projects.