In the view of Ricardo Pinto Pinheiro, new president of the Brazilian Association of Highway Concessionaires (ABCR), the fact that most of the country's main road axes have already been granted to the private sector will lead the federal government and some states to to replace the traditional model of “common concession” with that of public-private partnerships (PPPs) in the tenders to come. “We are closely following some projects that are beginning to be defined in this sense”, he says.
He cites as an example the government of São Paulo, which recently launched a public notice for a PPP for the duplication of the mountain stretches of the Rodovia dos Tamoios, on the north coast of the State. Trained as an electrical engineer, Pinheiro has been CEO of the National Department of Water and Electric Energy (DNAEE) and the Water Regulatory Agency (Adasa), president of Eletronorte and the Brazilian Association of Regulatory Agencies (Abar), in addition to having worked for ten years in the project area of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), in the United States. Below are the main excerpts from an interview with Valor.
Valor: What is the outlook for road concessions via PPPs?
Ricardo Pinto Pinheiro: From the mid-1990s, the program adopted in the country was structured through the common concession, a model in which the administration of the granted stretch is supported only by the revenue from the toll fee charged to the user. PPPs – a model that foresees contractual arrangements through which the government assumes future commitments through guarantees and options – are an important variable in the formulation of strategies for financing large-scale works and are expanding internationally. In Brazil we already have two successful concessions: the MG-050, with 371,4 kilometers in length, connecting the Metropolitan Region of Belo Horizonte to the municipality of São Sebastião do Paraíso, close to the border with São Paulo; and the Rota dos Coqueiros, in Pernambuco, with 6,2 kilometers, which gives access to the south coast of that State. In Paraná, the state government started contracting, via PPP, the consortium that will manage the PR-323 highway, with 220 kilometers. Investments will amount to R$ 7,7 billion and the winning concessionaire will have to duplicate 207 kilometers between the municipalities of Maringá and Francisco Alves.
Valor: Have users – especially truck drivers – already incorporated the cost-benefit ratio of tolls on concessioned highways into their cultures?
Pinheiro: Concessionaire surveys have found a high level of user satisfaction, including among truck drivers, who recognize the quality and benefits that the concessioned highways offer. Drivers identify the participation of the private sector, which has taken place in recent years, as a fundamental aspect for the recovery, expansion and improvement of the quality of our highways.
Valor: Are the cargo carriers satisfied too?
Pine: Also. They realize on a daily basis that traveling on concession roads provides economic gains and improvement in the management of their businesses. Recently, a study carried out by the Instituto Mato-Grossense de Economia e Agropecuária evaluated the cost-benefit ratio of the BR-163 concession in Mato Grosso, a road auctioned in 2013. The survey concluded that the cost of transport should drop 11% to every ton of grain transported. According to the study, the cost of transporting grain will fall due to the various benefits offered by more suitable roads, such as reduced vehicle maintenance costs and reduced travel time with the duplication of the highway.
Valor: What are the measures to reduce the number of victims in road traffic?
Pinheiro: In 2011, the UN launched the Road Safety Decade, which aims to halve the number of traffic victims in the world, even taking into account that some European countries have already exceeded this goal. Compliance with legislation, inspection, traffic education, driver awareness, safer roads, safer vehicles and quick service make up the frame of reference to achieve good results. Brazil has a very strict traffic legislation, the so-called Dry Law was created, there is an effort by non-governmental entities and the government to improve this scenario, but the technicians teach us and warn that we still have a lot to do.
Valor: What is the role of concessionaires in this regard?
Pinheiro: The concessionaires do not have police power, that is, they cannot fine offending drivers, impound vehicles or take any other action that is the responsibility of the public authorities. But they develop and support preventive and educational campaigns in defense of respect for traffic legislation, with a view to reducing accidents. Some examples of these actions are participation in seminars on the subject, holding lectures at educational institutions, producing films, plays, distributing leaflets at toll plazas and a traffic education program in partnership with elementary schools. . In 2012, more than 3 million students from cities located along the concession highways participated in these programs, in addition to teachers and residents.
Valor: How do you see ANTT's proposal to make all federal highways granted electronic inspection until the next four years?
Pinheiro: For us, at ABCR, the modernization of the toll collection system, via an electronic system, better known in the world as free flow or AET [All Electronic Toll], is a natural evolution of charging for the use of highways. The main benefits of implementing electronic toll collection via gateways in place of toll plazas refer to the expansion of the payer base, since, as of this change, all vehicles entering a concession highway will pay for the use of the infrastructure. That doesn't happen today. With the change, users will pay for the distance traveled on the highways. It's a fairer system. In it, everyone will pay; but everyone will pay less. For this system to be implemented, however, it will be necessary for the Brazilian vehicle fleet to be legally registered. Only the identification of all vehicles will allow the collection to be carried out. This is also not the case today. According to estimates, more than 30% of Brazilian vehicles are in an irregular situation.
Valor: What is the financial balance of the Brazilian highway concession program, from its inception until today?
Pinheiro: Since the program was implemented, in the first half of the 1990s, concessionaires have invested BRL 38 billion in works, conservation and improvements on concession highways. In addition, another R$ 33 billion was invested in the operation of these stretches, ensuring safety and better traffic conditions for drivers. In São Paulo, where the roads were originally in better condition, investments were huge in duplicating and extending stretches, in addition to applying resources to improve systems and safety.
Source: Valor Econômico
By Juan Garrido | For Valor, from São Paulo
