ANTT wants HSR auction until October

The National Land Transport Agency (ANTT – Agência Nacional de Transportes Terrestres) expects that the auction to grant the High Speed Rail (HSR) will occur in September or October, considering it is expected that the notice to bid will go to public hearing in February and will be published in April, informed ANTT General Director Bernardo Figueiredo on this Wednesday.

According to the director, the Transport Minister will convene a meeting on the topic no later than next week in order to the notice to bid proposals can be finalized and delivered to the Brazilian Court of Audit (BCA).

“I believe that by the end of this month this process has been completed and we can start the public hearing of the notice to bid in February,” he said at a press conference after the auction of the BR-101 stretch located in the state of Espírito Santo.

After repeated postponements and no investor having appeared at the auction in July of last year, the Government decided to split the Bullet Train auction into two parts, in order to save the companies applying to be operators from the risks associated with the project civil works.

According to government projections, the 511 km long Bullet Train will require an investment of US$ 18.81 billion.

Figueiredo added that these deadlines are government’s goal, but if they see any impediment to the competition and interest of the companies in the project, the schedule may change.

“It is a very robust investment to not be done in a very precise and competitive way. The core of our concern is to have a competitive process,” he said.

“The schedule is a goal. But if some problem should happen and we realize that it will not work that way, we will change the schedule. I will not  put at risk an 18 billion project because of two months of work,” he said.

Figueiredo added that the US$ 11.33 billion financing to be provided by Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES – Banco Nacional de Desenvolvimento Econômico e Social), covering 70 percent of the project value, will be divided into US$ 2.26 billion to the winners of the technology stage and US$ 9.07 billion to the infrastructure stage.