China's toll roads suffer from huge losses

China's toll roads extended losses last year due to a sharp rise in loan repayments, an official report said Tuesday.

Turnpikes nationwide posted combined losses of 157 billion yuan (25.7 billion U.S. dollars) in 2014, a huge increase from 66.1 billion yuan a year ago, according to the Ministry of Transport (MOT).

Total revenue stood at 392 billion yuan, a figure good enough to rank 13th in China's Fortune 500 if the road network is seen as a company, but expenditures were much bigger -- 549 billion yuan.

An official with the MOT, Wang Tai attributed the huge spending to the repayment of loans, which accounted for two thirds of the total costs.

The government has spent generously on roads. More than 6 trillion yuan has been invested, nearly 70 percent of which came from banks and other creditors.

Total debts had accumulated to 3.8 trillion yuan by 2014, Wang said. But he expects the situation will be much eased in the future as toll road construction has slowed.

However, analysts pointed out the construction will remain a hefty burden on the government and private capital is badly needed.

The MOT published a guideline in May to encourage the Public-Private-Partnerships (PPP) to attract private funds into the process.

PPP will narrow the capital gap, speed up the improvement of road networks and bring better services, said Wang Limei, vice president of China Road Transport Association. Endi