Transnordestina has new extension and 69 months of delay

Transport minister César Borges said this Wednesday, at a public hearing in the Committee of Infrastructure of the Senate, that the National Land Transport Agency (ANTT – Agência Nacional de Transportes Terrestres) signed with Transnordestina Logística SA (TLSA), linked to CSN, a contract amendment on September 20 that defined the extension of the completion of the railroad from December 2015 to September 2016.

The original date delivery of the Nova Transnordestina railroad was December 2010, implying delay of 69 months since the conception of the first Brazilian Growth Acceleration Program (PAC – Programa de Aceleração do Crescimento) in 2007.

Additional investments and new deadlines were defined, Borges said.

Work is currently budgeted at $3.45 billion, $1.38 billion more expensive than its original forecast. The previous deadline for completion of the work in the last balance sheet of PAC 2 was December 2015.

The railroad will link the northeastern backcountry to the ports of Suape (state of Pernambuco) and Pecém (state of Ceará). According to Borges, TLSA already has an ongoing process of hiring a company to continue the work after the contract with Odebrecht was broken, which was responsible for advancing the construction sites.

Senator Vital do Rego (PMDB party of Paraíba), author of the requirement so that the railroad was debated in the Senate, said that for one year there was a process of renegotiation of prices and terms of the concession, but still there is no news that the financial problem of the project was solved, since there is no freight demand for its use.

Upon its release, it was expected that the railroad Nova Transnordestina would transport grain and ores from the Northeast to the ports; however, while the region’s agricultural production progressed, the mineral developments in the region barely got started.