The most important highway of Brazil: Via Dutra

São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro are the two most populous cities of Brazil and have great importance for the cultural, political and economic life of the country. São Paulo is the largest economic center of Latin America, and Rio is a center of Brazilian cultural life.

The need to better connect those two cities and to integrate the Southern and Northeast Regions of the country led to the construction of Rodovia Presidente Dutra, inaugurated on this day, in 1951, by President Eurico Gaspar Dutra. The highway was named after him.

Via Dutra, as it's known, is the most important highway of Brazil. It connects the two most essential Brazilian cities of the country, runs through one of the richest regions of Brazil (the Paraíba Valley) and is the main link between the South and the Northeast of the country.

Celebrating the vision of the leaders of the past, who built this important highway, Brazil now commemorates the recent advances that will allow the improvement of this unique piece of infrastructure, namely the successful auction to modernize and improve the safety of the road.

This was the biggest auction in the history of Brazil, opening the way for more than 3 billion dollars in investments over the next 30 years. The Public-Private Partnership will modernize the operation Via Dutra, allowing for more safety in the country's most important highway.