Italian motorway operator 3623 Autostrade per l'Italia (ASPI) signed the US$3.86 billion contract awarded earlier on in 2011 for the heavy vehicle satellite toll system of the motorway network in France. ASPI leads a consortium also including French telecom group SFR with a six per cent stake, defence group Thales with 11 per cent, IT specialist Steria with three per cent, and transport firm SNCF with 10 per cent.The project is designed to monitor vehicles above 3.5 tonnes on a 15,000 km network, through a satellite transmitter and 4,000 check points. The toll should be of $0.17 per km, and it is estimated that 600,000 devices will be installed for regular users, and 200,000 for occasional users.
The system will be operational from July 2013, and the concession has been assigned until 2024; in this period, ASPI should earn around US$277 million per year, while the French government will pocket an estimated $1.66 billion. The Italian firm will invest over $832 million in the project, using credit lines granted by a consortium including Mediobanca,3320 Credit Agricole, 5394 Banca Imi, 5425 UniCredit Bank Austria AG, 5396 Caisse des Depots and 3321 Deutsche Bank.
The system will be operational from July 2013, and the concession has been assigned until 2024; in this period, ASPI should earn around US$277 million per year, while the French government will pocket an estimated $1.66 billion. The Italian firm will invest over $832 million in the project, using credit lines granted by a consortium including Mediobanca,
