(Yicai Global) June 10 -- Some highways between Beijing’s central urban area and its southeastern Tongzhou district will be toll free from today to promote the development of the city’s subcenter and greatly reduce stressful commuting between the two parts of town.

The Jingtong Expressway, which runs the 18.4-kilometer distance between Beijing and Tongzhou, and the Tongyan Expressway, between Tongzhou and Yanjiao in neighboring Sanhe city, Hebei province, will be toll free except for traffic entering the capital during rush hour from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m., Yicai Global has learned.

And the section of the Beijing-Harbin Expressway that falls within Beijing’s sixth ring road will be completely toll free.

In August last year, Beijing said it will promote the development of Tongzhou as a subcenter of the city and waive toll charges on routes to and from the city center as well as introduce new routes to facilitate commuting.

Authorities, though, will have to compensate the highway operators for the loss in income. The Jingtong Expressway accounted for 2.2 percent of operator Capital Eco-Environment Protection’s operating profit last year at CNY72.4 million (USD10.8 million) last year and 1.4 percent of its revenue at CNY302.6 million (USD45.3 million), the unit of state-owned real estate to financial services conglomerate Beijing Capital Group said yesterday.

The Tongyan and Beijing-Harbin Expressway are run by infrastructure construction company Beijing Capital Highway Development Group.

Capital Eco-Environment’s stock price [SHA:600008] edged up 1.04 percent to CNY2.92 (USD0.44) apiece at close today, giving it a market capitalization of CNY21.4 billion (USD3.2 billion).

Editors: Dou Shicong, Kim Taylor