Brasília – The new call to tender for the high speed train will be published on March 10th. With this, the forecast for promotion of the auction is September, according to the director general of the National Agency for Overland Transport (ANTT), Bernardo Figueiredo. According to him, public viewing will be opened starting on January 10. The high speed train should connect the cities of Campinas, São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.
Figueiredo said that the model for the tender has already been closed by the agency and that in the meeting scheduled for next week, with the Growth Acceleration Program (PAC) management panel, the “model consolidated by the technicians” should be validated.
“We are working with the same elements as in the previous model. The difference is that we have fractioned the cash flow and financing. There will not, therefore, be any greater share of public funds,” said the ANTT director. He explained that, initially, the high-speed train technology and operator should be selected. Only then will the tenders for construction of the infrastructure take place. The government estimates that the total cost of the work is 33 billion reals (US$ 17 billion).
“The risk factor ended up generating the need for a looser budget by companies. Therefore, they presented greater margin [than presented by the government],” he added, referring to budgets that reach as much as 60 billion reals (US$ 34 billion). “It was not necessarily a badly calculated budget. The thing is that, in a little competitive environment, it is normal for the market to try to establish a comfortable budget.”
Part of the work will have participation of foreign companies, due to the difficulties involving the technologies in the regions the high speed train will cross, climbing Araras mountain range and the large tunnels that must be built in Rio de Janeiro.
“On the international market, there are between 20 and 30 capable companies. In less complex works, the competition will certainly be greater,” said the director.
*Translated by Mark Ament
