Government seeks another R$ 17,8 billion for investments in highways

Source: Valor Econômico

The government is aware that the highway auctions, as well as those for airports, were the only ones that really attracted the interest of the private sector. Those for railroads and port terminals, finally, seem to make progress, but they still cause many doubts and fears. Those for urban mobility depend on state and municipal governments and are even more time-consuming. Therefore, if the objective is to launch investments in infrastructure in a relatively short period of time, the best path seems to be to attract more tenders in highways and airports.

Tenders blocked in other sectors made the government, which came to prepare yet another large package of multimodal tenders - just like the first program, launched in 2012 with pomp and circumstance -, suddenly announce on January 31 a much more humble package , only on highways. The waterways, for example, which were even mentioned in an interview by the then Minister of the Civil House, Gleisi Hoffmann, are not yet among the targets of the concessions.

Now, the government seems to prefer to bet on what is working. The new highway concessions, announced just over 15 days ago in Brasília by President Dilma Rousseff and by Transport Minister, César Borges, include five stretches.

One of them is the Rio-Niterói Bridge, whose current contract with CCR ends in 2015. Another refers to another stretch of the BR-163 between Mato Grosso and Pará. A third batch includes stretches of BR-364 and BR-060 that connect Rondonópolis (MT) to Goiânia (GO). Also included in the package was the BR-364, which connects Jataí (GO) to the State of Minas Gerais. And, finally, the BR-476, connected with the BRs 153, 282, 480, passing through the states of Paraná, Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul. 25 companies have already expressed interest in studying the sections.

According to the Minister of Transport, the five concessions will enable the duplication of 2.282 km of highways and have an expected investment of R$ 17,8 billion.

In airports – another sector of great interest to the private sector – there is no signal from the government for more large concessions in the short term. What remains for Planalto is to generate investments through another model, through the regional aviation plan. In this case, the government will invest R$ 7,3 billion in 270 airports outside capital cities. The intention was announced on the same day as the announcement of the tenders for Galeão (RJ) and Confins (MG), which have already been tendered, but it is taking time to get off the ground.