Brasília – Brazil’s federal government will rely on private sector players to build strategic railroads. In return, the companies involved will get 30-year concessions for other railroads renewed. The plan was made public on Monday (2) by the chief minister of the Secretariat General to the Presidency chief minister, Ronaldo Fonseca, Transportation minister Valter Casimiro, and Investment Partnerships Program (IPP) special secretary Adalberto Vasconcelos.
Priority will be given to two projects, the first being Ferrovia de Integração Centro-Oeste (Fico), the Center-West Integration Railroad, spanning 383 km from Água Boa (MT) to its connection with Ferrovia Norte–Sul (the North-South Railroad) in Campinorte (GO). The second project is Ferroanel de São Paulo (the São Paulo Rail Ring), covering 53 km from stations Perus, in São Paulo, and Manoel Feio, in Itaquaquecetuba, Mogi das Cruzes (SP), and running parallel with the northern section of São Paulo’s Rodoanel road ring.
At an estimated cost of BRL 4 billion (USD 1 billion), Fico will be built by mining company Vale, which will get its concessions for the railroads Carajás (in Pará and Maranhão) and Vitória–Minas renewed through 2057.
Ferroanel builder MRS Logística will get several concessions renewed in exchange for building the 53 km span. Once works have been completed, cargo trains headed for the Port of Santos (SP) will no longer need to share the tracks with the passenger trains of Companhia Paulista de Trens Metropolitanos (CPTM), the São Paulo metropolitan train company.
Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
