Part of the 2023 State Budget, the measure is intended to promote the interior of the country.

The Algarve’s Via do Infante will benefit from a reduction in toll prices within the “Trabalhar no Interior” (Working in the Interior) programme, guaranteed the Minister of Territorial Cohesion Ana Abrunhosa, this Tuesday. The measure was proposed in the 2023 State Budget (OE2023) as part of an initiative to promote the country’s interior regions.

“We are talking about roads in the interior and the A22”, explained the Minister. “I want to emphasise that the Via do Infante is included. It has the same treatment as the interior roads because there are no alternatives, and the existing public transport does not respond to the needs of the populations”, defended Ana Abrunhosa.

The Minister stressed that the reduction of the tolls on those roads is included in a specific and integrated programme to encourage the use of collective transport, which should advance at the beginning of next year.

The proposed State Budget for 2023 includes a norm reflecting the Government’s commitment to work on a programme to reduce context costs on inland motorways and improve mobility and accessibility in the territories.

“There is a big problem in the interior, in which people have to use their car because there is no collective public transport. And when there is, they generate great costs for the municipalities”, said the Minister, who defended the expansion of the transport project “for the most fragile populations”.