The Minister of Public Works defended this Friday that the "user-pays" measure, which consists of building new toll booths for users to collaborate on road maintenance costs will be fundamental for the conservation of the road network.

"From the survey we conducted in the region and in other parts of the world, it was clear that the countries that adopt this user-pays principle have a road network in good condition, unlike countries whose users do not pay," said the Minister of Public Works, Housing, and Water Resources, João Machatine, quoted by the Mozambican Information Agency.

The new measure is part of the Self-Sustaining Road Maintenance Program (PROASME), an instrument approved last November and which aims to create conditions for the preservation of the country's road network.

The adoption of this measure does not imply that the Government will exempt itself from its responsibilities, clarified the governor.

"We are not saying that the users will be paying in full for the maintenance actions, but that they will share in it. The State will never exempt itself from this responsibility," he stressed.

The government hopes that the investments in the road network can reverse the current scenario in which only 8,000 of the country's 30,000 kilometers of roads are paved.