Branch reactivation will connect Montevideo to São Paulo

Bilateral trade between Brazil and Uruguay should receive a major boost later this year. The reactivation of the rail connection between the two countries will allow products to be transported long distances from the Uruguay’s capital Montevideo to the state of São Paulo, with lower freight value. The subject was on the agenda of today’s meeting (October 5), in Rio de Janeiro, between the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Brazil, Antonio Patriota, and Uruguay, Luis Almagro.

They detailed the mechanism called New Brazil-Uruguay Paradigm, which includes a series of actions in the fields of economy, science, technology, communications, movement of people and transport. Brazil is the main economic partner of Uruguay, with a trade of $3.9 billion in 2011. Until September this year it has reached $2.88 billion.

Uruguay has almost completed the reactivation of 377 kilometers of its railway network from the city of Pintado, in the center of the country, to the city of Rivera, neighbor of the Brazilian city of Santana do Livramento, in the state of Rio Grande do Sul. On that place, the branch Livramento-Cacequi is in its final stages of recovery. It will connect with the capital Porto Alegre and other Brazilian states, mainly São Paulo, which concentrates most of the country’s industrial output.

We finished reactivation works of the first step in the branch Pintado-Rivera. And now they are finalizing the recovery of the branch Livramento-Cacequi. The deadlines for completion have been modified. They were originally scheduled for September 15. Now we expect to occur by the end of 2012, said Almagro, during a press conference, next to his Brazilian counterpart.

According to the Uruguayan foreign minister, the gauges [width of the tracks] are different, but there are technical solutions that enable the connection. Part of the extension will be operated by the private sector, and also there will be public investment to rehabilitate the rest of the line, whose main purpose is freight transportation.

Minister Antonio Patriota highlighted the positive momentum of the Uruguayan economy, which have been growing at significant rates in recent years. The Uruguayan economy has grown at high rates for ten years. We want to establish a deeper process of approximation and integration. The different priority areas are: productive integration, science, technology and innovation, communication and information, integration of transport infrastructure, free movement of goods and services and free movement of people, he said.

Fonte: Agência Brasil