Amendment to highway financing should fund 1,900 km of toll roads by 2015

Due to the proposed amendment of the toll highway bill Poland may be able to increase the network to 1,900 kilometers by 2015. During the six years it has been in force, Poland hardly managed to double the network of such roads to 266 kilometers. The Highway Construction and Development Agency (ABiEA) president Andrzej Urbanik says the previous bill had been based on the illusion that all the costs would be born by private investors and the government would only participate in sharing profits. "Evidence in Hungary, Mexico and the La Manche tunnel has shown that no investments made without public financing or financed only by tolls can be finished," said Urbanik. The whole idea is to join private and state funds and not only increase public spending. After the amendments the new Domestic Highway Fund (KFA) would be created and every six months the government would deposit a portion of car excise duty, tolls and money from bonds and shares to build highways. (Prawo i Gospodarka, page 1, 2) M.M.