09/10/2008 11h15
The concession of high speed train between São Paulo and Rio will be held in March
Folha de S. Paulo - 09/10/2008
The concession auction for Brazil's first high speed train, connecting Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, in addition to the airport of Viracopos, in Campinas, will be held in March of 2009, seven months from now. The rush is given by the Federal Government, which is working with the perspective of having the high speed train in operation in the 2014 FIFA World Cup
TM. BNDES and IBD (Interamerican Bank of Development) are structuring the project to deliver it to the government "turn-key" for concession. ANTT (National Agency of Road Transports), which will be responsible for the concession process, should publish information for the groups interested in taking part in the auction in the next days. The project has only the estimate cost of R$ 20 billion (US$ 12.3 billion), but this is not the final amount yet. According to Costa Pinto, the final definition of the route of the approximate 500 kilometers of railroads will be essential to estimate the cost of the work. It is estimated that the final route will be defined in the next weeks. In October, the group intends to define an essential parameter of the project: the travel time between Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo and Campinas. According to Costa Pinto, from the travel time there will be the definition of the train speed. At first, the idea is to stipulate the time between one and a half hour and two hours for the trip between São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. The trip between São Paulo and Campinas should be 30 minutes. The suggestion is that the average speed of the compositions will be 200 km/h, at least. The return rate for the concessionaire is another point in phase of definition. It will depend on the undertaking's risk evaluation and on the service demand level. A study to identify the prospective passengers is currently being made. Because of the celerity in which the Federal Government wants to auction the work, the basic project being developed will not have the Ibama's previous license yet. Nonetheless, Costa Pinto says that he does not believe that there will be any problems for the work's licensing. The Ministry of the Environment and Ibama have been participating in the undertaking's discussions. Both BNDES and IBD should present the basic design with the Reference Term and the contract documents necessary for the licensing process.
