The thousand-or-so kilometres of highway between the southern end of the Northern Territory to the northern end of Western Australia may become a sealed toll road for trucks, if a local group gets its way.

A group of community lobbyists want truck drivers to pay to use the rough and barely safe stretch known as Tanami Road. The locals hope that the potential short-cut will be attractive enough to raise revenue for upgrades.

A spokesperson for the group says it has commissioned a feasibility study for the idea, and that some trucking companies have shown their interest too.

“We have spoken to a lot of trucking companies, and at the moment, if you want to go from Alice Springs to Broome, you need to go up to Katherine and across the Kununurra then back down,” spokesperson Lara Wilde says.

“Now just to be able to [avoid] that, they're going to be able to save 1100 kilometres, they're going to save 17.5 hours of driving and they're going to save about $4500 in running costs.”

“It won't toll local community traffic, tradespeople or tourists, but purely those heavy road trains that want to use it as a freight corridor.

“That would give everyone a fantastic road, and access which connects the Kimberley with the rest of Australia,” Ms Wilde said.

“If it is definitely feasible, we will be off to Canberra to have a talk with the Government about underwriting the loans so that we can begin construction.”