On May 6, Mr. Xu, a resident of Taiping subdistrict of Anning city, found that the toll from Taiping toll station to West Kunming toll station was only one yuan, which was 7 yuan cheaper than the previous charge. “If you work 22 days a moth, you will save 308 yuan from highway tolls alone, which is equivalent to one tank of gasoline!” he said. 

Why has the cost from Taiping toll station to West Kunming toll station fallen so much? 

According to the requirements of the Ministry of Transport on regulating the initial section of highway around the city, the starting point of distance based charging in Kun'an (Kunming - Anning Highway) was adjusted from Mingbo Overpass to Changpo Overpass Center, and the charging distance is 9.64 km now, reducing 12 km in total. “We started implementing this new standard after we resumed highway charging at 0:00 on May 6. “ a customer service staff of Kun’an management unit said. 

“The widely adopted toll standards for commercial roads in Yunnan is 0.5 yuan per vehicle per kilometer of commercial highway, and for bridge and tunnel above 500 meters the rate is 1.2 yuan per vehicle per kilometer. From Mingbo Overpass to Taiping, the normal road takes up 3.2 kilometers, and the bridge and tunnel above 500 meters take up 10 kilometers. Therefore, the total cost is about 7.6 yuan and you’re going to pay 8 yuan if the toll station rounds it up according to the standard of ‘Fees starts at yuan’ .” a customer service staff from Yunnan Road Network Toll Management Co. LTD explained.

In addition, the charging stop point of Wu Kun expressway was adjusted to Wu Guishan Overpass Center, and the toll mileage was adjusted to 56.13 km. 

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(Editors: Alison,Rachel)