Billions transferred to motorway licencees

A2 motorway: photo - wikipedia

Companies that manage Poland’s paid motorways have to set aside some of the money they get from fees and transfer it to the Government Road Fund (KFD). In exchange, the fund pays them a so-called ‘availability fee’.

This money is intended to finance everyday maintenance costs and refinance loans that the companies took when they were building the roads.

Neither GTC, which manages part of the A1 motorway, nor Autostrada Wielkopolska, the operator of part of the A2, disclose how much money they get from the KFD. The data is also not published by the Ministry of Infrastructure, which only states that the fund got 92.7 million zloty (some 22.3 million euro) from fees last year.

However, the Gazeta Wyborcza daily managed to calculate the sum with the help of data from the financial statement of state-owned lender Bank Gospodarstwa Krajowego, which manages the road fund. Last year, payments to firms managing paid motorways exceeded 1.2 billion zloty. A similar amount is likely to be paid out in 2014.

As the newspaper suggests, the sum would be enough to build 30 kilometres of motorway, some 40-60 kilometers of expressway or several ring roads.

GTC holds the license on the Gdansk-Torun segment of A1 until 2039. Autostrada Wielkopolska has the right to fees on the Swiecko-Nowy Tomysl segment of A2 until 2034. Throughout that time they will be entitled to subsidies. (kw/jb)