São Paulo comes out in front

With the Airport Express project, the rail connection between the center of São Paulo and the Airport of Guarulhos that should start in the beginning of next year, the government of São Paulo is still ahead in relation to the others in Public-Private Partnership (PPPs) use. The new line should have an extension of 27 kilometers that will take in 15 minutes to cross. Now, the government is closing the studies on the value of the tariff (that should be around US$ 12.50), the location of the initial station in the center of the capital and the definitive plan.

Metro

In the area of transports, São Paulo can open for the private investor the participation in the export corridor that will interconnect Great São Paulo, Campinas, Vale do Paraíba and the North Coast, with the highways Ayrton Senna, Carvalho Pinto, Dom Pedro I and Tamoios. In the area of passengers´ metropolitan transport, it is studying the Expresso Bandeirante, an express train between Campinas and the center of the capital, with track parallel  to the line now operated by CPTM, and with estimated cost in US$ 550 millions.

However, São Paulo is an exception. Public-Private Partnership’s (PPPs) projects in all of government´s levels show a slowness that does not match with the financial reality of the Brazilian public section or with the calamitous situation of the infrastructure of the country. Instituted by law in December of 2004, PPPs appeared as one of the main instruments to make possible the investments that the country needs, but practically they did not leave the paper. It is as if the government did not need the support of private capitals to accomplish investments in infrastructure for which it does not have enough resources.

The private investors look for, with certain anxiety, where to apply their resources. However, in spite of the declarations of ministers, governors and mayors about the creation of partnerships, the private sector does not find projects in which it can participate. Besides the contract of the Line 4 of the subway of São Paulo, only two more were signed in the country, one in the municipal district of Rio Claro (operation of the system of collection of sewage) and other in Minas Gerais (recovery and enlargement of the Highway MG-050).

The complexity of projects of partnership of long duration, that should contain appropriate warranties for the contracting parties, the lack of good viability studies, government´s changes and the appeal to the courts by those that felt jeopardized by the established rules are some of the factors that explain the slowness of PPPs. However, it is possible to make them move forward faster, as it is observed in São Paulo.

Fonte: O Estado de São Paulo