Residents of Shakhty opposed the toll on the "Don" highway.

After the introduction of the toll for the reconstructed section of the M-4 "Don" highway for residents of Shakhty working in Rostov-on-Don, trips will be extremely expensive, or they will have to use alternative routes, local residents believe, who have announced a petition against the introduction of the toll.

A group of activists in the city of Shakhty in the Rostov region has launched a petition demanding that local residents be granted discounted travel on the federal M-4 "Don" highway. The section of the road that thousands of Shakhty residents travel daily to Rostov-on-Don is being reconstructed by the authorities until 2027 and will become toll-based, writes "Horizontal Russia 7x7" (registered as a foreign agent).

If the highway becomes toll-based, motorists will start using smaller roads, for example, through Novocherkassk. This could lead to hours-long traffic jams, while the journey to Rostov-on-Don via the highway takes 40 minutes.

The initiative group, consisting of about 20 people, is collecting signatures not only in Shakhty but also attracting neighbors. Residents of Krasny Sulin, the Krasnosulinsky district, Novoshakhtinsk, the Oktyabrsky district, and the Vladimirovsky rural settlement have joined the campaign, said the author of the petition against the toll for local residents, Elena Anikeeva, to the Shakhty publication "KVU".

Activists are collecting signatures in Shakhty hospitals, at enterprises, markets, and on the streets. So far, they have managed to collect about two thousand signatures.

The reconstruction of the M-4 "Don" highway from Kamensk-Shakhtinsky towards Rostov-on-Don began in 2025. The work covers a section from the 933rd to the 1024th kilometer, approximately 91 kilometers long. The road is being expanded from four to six lanes to increase capacity and reduce the risk of congestion. The reconstruction is planned to be completed in 2027. In 2026, a decision was made to include the road in the list of toll sections after the reconstruction is completed. A toll booth is planned to be installed at the 1021st kilometer of the M-4 "Don", near Persianovka. Thus, motorists who regularly travel from Shakhty to Rostov-on-Don will have to consider additional expenses.

As reported by "Caucasian Knot", in April 2017 it became known that the company "Avtodor" plans to make the section of the M-4 "Don" highway in the southern Rostov region toll-based by the end of the year from the 1091st to the 1119th kilometer, that is, from Bataisk to the border with the Krasnodar region. The head of "Avtodor" promised the residents of the Rostov region, who demanded free travel on the M-4 "Don" highway, a discounted rate for trips on the toll section.