The Praia-Tarrafal coastal expressway will be the first toll road in Cape Verde. The legal diploma opening the way for the introduction of toll roads in Cape Verde was approved last week by the Council of Ministers, Cape Verde’s cabinet, and the Ministry of Infrastructures and Transportation will launch the public bid to choose the construction company that will carry out the project before the end of the year. According to the diploma, the winning company will be responsible for the conception, construction, financing, conservation and administration of the expressway for a period of time yet to be defined.

Minister of Infrastructures and Transportation Manuel Inocêncio Sousa told A Semana that as soon as the law decree in question is published in the Official Bulletin, the bid will be under way.

Even so, the cabinet minister has unable to give a deadline for the conclusion of the project or a figure regarding the investments required. “The dossier for the bid has already been elaborated, but we’re still only getting the process under way, and things will take some time,” affirmed Sousa.

Asked whether the expressway will see enough traffic to finance the enterprise, Manuel Inocêncio Sousa responded that “users will pay tolls, but if the traffic fails to make the investment viable, the State will provide the difference.” This, he says, is a “mixed alternative to traditional ways of managing expressways: normally, either traffic is enough to pay the company holding the concession contract or the State takes on all expenses with no cost to the user.”

In the Minister’s opinion, this “investment is strategic for the development of the island of Santiago,” and he believes that, when it is completed, “the expressway will have more traffic due to the growth in tourism, and will be useful for the farming sector as well.”

Source: A Semana