Brazil's government reveals plans to privatize key shipping
route
Jair Bolsonaro plans to overhaul country’s transportation
infrastructure despite concerns of increased deforestation on the
Trans-Amazonian highway
Reuters in Brasília
Wed 23 Jan 2019 06.00 GMT
A car drives along BR-163, a key northern route for shipping
Brazilian grains, in Para, northern Brazil.
Brazil’s new government has unveiled plans to privatize the
Trans-Amazonian Highway, in a fresh attempt to complete – and fully pave – the
dictatorship-era road which has already been blamed for extensive
deforestation.
The government also plans to sell to investors a concession
to run BR-163, a key northern route for shipping Brazilian grains, adding it
along with the Trans-Amazonian to a priority list for privatization at a
meeting next month, infrastructure minister Tarcisio Freitas told Reuters in an
interview.
Jair Bolsonaro’s government is seeking to overhaul Brazil’s
poor transportation infrastructure, which raises costs and causes delays for
the commodity-exporting powerhouse, by seeking private investors to operate
dozens of road, rail and airport projects.
On Monday, government secretary Adalberto Vasconcelos, who
has been tasked with creating public-private infrastructure partnerships, said
the country would privatize more airports and secure new investment for
railways.
For roadways, five concessions are slated for auction this
year with a long pipeline of projects to follow, according to Freitas.
BR-262/381 in the state of Minas Gerais, sometimes called the “Road of Death”
because its poor condition has contributed to lethal accidents, will also be
put on the privatization list next month, he said.
The Trans-Amazonian highway, officially known as BR-230, was
inaugurated in the 1970s under Brazil’s military dictatorship, but only a
fraction of its nearly 3,000 kilometers (1,864-miles) were paved and much of
the existing roadway has fallen into disrepair. It stretches from the coastal
state of Paraiba deep into Amazonas state. Original plans for it to reach the
border with Peru were never completed.
Nevertheless, research by Brazil’s space agency and
academics has linked the road to a rise in deforestation, and road improvements
allowing easier access deep into the Amazon have consistently led to increased
deforestation nearby.
Freitas did not elaborate on whether the country would seek
to privatize all or part of the Trans-Amazonian.
He said that major construction firms that were implicated
in corruption schemes remain unable to participate in public auctions for
infrastructure projects, but could act as subcontractors for winners of
concession auctions.
Engineering conglomerates implicated in corruption schemes
to fix contracts include Odebrecht SA and Andrade Gutierrez SA, with those
companies signing leniency deals with the government admitting guilt and
agreeing to cooperate.
“They are companies that have know-how, companies with
engineering (ability), companies that can provide good services,” Freitas said.
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