Buda: We want all highways to be available free of charge starting next summer vacation

The government's intention is to negotiate with the concessionaires of toll highway sections so that no tolls will be charged on them from next year's vacations, Development and Technology Minister Waldemar Buda said.

"We have to renegotiate it with them, we have to come to an agreement on what rates, in what legal mechanism we will do it. And within a year we will deal with it. Next summer it will be resolved," Buda told Radio Zet, referring to the A2 highway to the German border.

Asked if this also applies to other tolled sections, such as Katowice-Krakow, he replied: "Yes, we should deal with it, it will be exactly one year."

"There is also a formula for expropriation for public purposes. If there is no agreement and willingness to negotiate, we can expropriate from the whole area. And indeed the compensation will be determined by the court," the minister pointed out.

He stressed that the amounts involved would be amounts that are not "some huge" from the point of view of the state budget.

"The construction of this highway from Nowy Tomysl to Poznan alone is several dozen kilometers. We build such sections every year a dozen or so. So even if we were to buy out and pay compensation for many years, these are amounts that do not scare," Buda said.

Regarding the A2 highway, he indicated that the government wants to deduct the cost of operating the toll system at the gates and is willing to pay such "minimal" amounts to concessionaires.

During a weekend convention of the Law and Justice Party (PiS), the party's president Jaroslaw Kaczynski announced the introduction of free travel on state highways in the near future, and on private highways within the next year.

Source: Radio Zet and ISBnews