The Federal Account Court (TCU) authorized the government to publish the bid on the project of the High-speed Train between the cities of Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. The train will travel an itinerary of 405 kilometers in just one hour and 28 minutes. The plenary session of TCU approved minister Augusto Nardes´s report favorable to the studies of economical and financial viability for the project, appraised in US$ 9 billion (R$ 18,5 billion), after some recommendations are adopted in the bid. Valec – Engenharia, Construções e Ferrovias S.A. –, a company of the Ministry of the Transports responsible for the project, esteems that the bid will be published in up to 90 days.
“We made several audiences to correct flaws of the project and recommendations to protect the users and the treasury, and the subject had an all special attention due to its relevance. It is unacceptable that Brazil is still so late in that area of mass transports. The train can mark the beginning of a new era”, Nardes said.
Among the TCU recommendations is the demand of warranties to avoid future damages to the public treasury. The chosen model is of a concession, for the period of 35 years, and it doesn´t involve public resources.
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Italian and Koreans showed interest
The Court recommended Valec that the bid announcement is only thrown after Ibama – the environment official department — has emitted the environmental license. Valec president, José Francisco das Neves, informed that the licensing was already requested.
The project foresees the construction of two lines between the Central do Brasil station, in the center of Rio, and the Luz Station, in the center of São Paulo. Most of the itinerary, about 280 kilometers, it will be underground, through tunnels that will cut the Mantiqueira Sierra. A work group created in the government still in 2004 analyzed three projects for the enterprise, and the Italian, produced by Italplan, was considered the most viable from the technical and financial point of view, says Valec.
The project foresees the revitalization of Central do Brasil station and of Luz Station and a connection among the line of the high-speed train and the subway lines in Rio and in São Paulo. In the Luz Station, an underground terminal will be built, that will also have connection with the future Airport Express to Guarulhos.
The works should be executed with private resources, but BNDES – the national development bank — is foreseen as one of the financing institutions of the project. The president of Valec informed that there are at least three Korean groups interested in the project, that has a period of construction esteemed in seven years.
The economical and financial viability studies indicate that the bullet-train can transport 32 million passengers a year, at a tariffs of US$ 60 per passenger in the first five years.
Almost 40 years of promises
High-speed projects are not an innovations in the country. Already in 1968 the Japanese produced viability studies for the modernization of the Brazilian rail network. In 1970, the Instituto de Pesquisas da Faculdade de Engenharia Industrial (FEI), de São Bernardo do Campo (SP), projected a light aerodynamic train for high-speed, Talav, that would reach 300 km/h. But this bumped into the financial difficulties of RFFSA.
In 1978, the government was enthusiastic with the Japanese bullet-train Shinkansen, that made 250 km/h. The Ministry of the Transports ordered studies, but, again, the project bumped into the operational cost. The price of the ticket would be the same than that of an air ticket. In 1996, it was the time of French TGV, that also didn´t mature.
The new promise arrives when the Brazilian mesh rail will complete 153 years.
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