Federal highway concessions will have free flow toll – 06/14/2023 – Market

This Thursday (15th), the Ministry of Transport will announce a new road concession policy in the country. Among the planned measures are the adoption of “free flow” tolls and discounts for frequent road users.

A Sheet got information about the new model in advance. The ministry’s project foresees that the new concessions will have to adopt the “free flow” toll format until the fifth year of the contract.

In this model, charging is done by reading license plates or tags, without the need for drivers to stop at booths. Technology paves the way for charging to be done by distance travelled.

Another planned measure is that drivers who often use the same route will have progressive toll discounts. There would also be rebates for users of payment tags, such as those offered by Sem Parar and Conectcar.

There is also a determination that the new concessions have electric vehicle recharge points, also up to the fifth year of the contract.

The government also predicts that auctions will be based on the lowest tariff for users. There will also be a discount limit, to avoid cases in which the contracts later become financially unsustainable.

For 2023, the Ministry of Transport foresees the publication of five notices, which add up to R$ 66 billion between investments and operating expenses.

The list includes the 30-year concession project for the BR-381, in the stretch that connects Belo Horizonte and Governador Valadares, with a forecast of around R$ 5.2 billion in investments.

The concession is 304 kilometers long. The concession project provides for the duplication of 132 kilometers of lanes and the construction of 99 kilometers of additional lanes. The expectation is that the notice will be released in the last quarter of this year. The process will still undergo analysis by ANTT.

Another package of concessions that the federal government launched this year involves roads in Paraná. On Monday (12), ANTT published the public notice for the second batch of highways in the state, which covers almost 605 km of stretches of federal and state highways for 30 years.

The auction was scheduled for September 29 at the São Paulo Stock Exchange. The auction model will be exclusively for the lowest tariff, with increasing and proportional contributions for discounts above 18%.

The concession contract will run for 30 years, with expected revenue after that period estimated at around R$37.2 billion. In May, the agency approved the public notice for the first lot, with an auction scheduled for August 25th. In all, there will be six lots of roads from Paraná to be granted in Paraná.

The Ministry of Transport holds an event with investors this Thursday afternoon at the headquarters of B3, in São Paulo. The meeting will include presentations by the Minister of Transport, Renan Filho, the general director of ANTT (National Land Transport Agency), Rafael Vitale, and the director of Infrastructure at the BNDES, Luciana Costa, among other names.