FREEWAYS could be sold to the private sector and converted to tollways under a radical proposal for state governments to raise money for expensive new road and rail links.

The proposal, if adopted in Victoria, could lead to major roads such as the Eastern Freeway, the West Gate Freeway and the Western Ring Road being privatised and tolled.

The proceeds of the freeway sell-offs could then be used to build infrastructure such as hospitals, the Melbourne metro rail network, the missing link of Melbourne's outer ring road, and the proposed East-West link under Melbourne's inner north.

But the proposal - contained in a report by Infrastructure Australia, the independent federal government advisory body chaired by Sir Rod Eddington - is being resisted by the Baillieu government.