MOSCOW (AFP) -- Construction of high-speed, congestion-free highways linking major cities, airports and other key sites in Russia may begin soon as the country moves ahead with plans to introduce toll roads for the first time, newspapers said.

The reports said Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Zhukov pledged that the government would ensure that the State Duma passed a law allowing pay-for-use roads before the end of its current spring session.

Plans for construction of high-speed toll roads to bypass the mammoth traffic jams that ensnare drivers often for hours on end in and around large cities and major existing road transport arteries have been bandied around by officials for years.

But actual construction of the privately-funded roads has so far failed to get moving due to the absence of legislation permitting such transport routes, which has prevented investors from putting money down to pay for the projects, which are controversial in Russia.

Plans call for a high-quality, 10-lane highway between Moscow and Saint Petersburg with a speed limit not slower than 150 kilometers (93 miles) per hour.

Since the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union, the numbers of automobiles in Moscow and other big Russian cities have soared, making huge traffic jams and urban gridlock, from early hours until late into the evening, a regular feature of daily life in Russian cities.