The Ministry of Transport and the World Bank started negotiations for a program that involves R$ 4.5 billion in investments in the maintenance and improvement of federal highways.
The program should cover 4,550 kilometers of roads in 11 Brazilian states.
Corridors such as BR-251 in Minas Gerais, BR-242 in Bahia and BR-230 in Paraíba are on the list.
The package under discussion between the government and the World Bank foresees investments of US$ 840 million – equivalent to around R$ 4.5 billion at the current exchange rate.
Of the total amount, there are US$ 700 million directly from the multilateral institution and another US$ 140 million in counterparts from the National Department of Transport Infrastructure (Dnit), linked to the ministry.
The expectation is to conclude negotiations throughout 2023 and have access to resources from 2024.
It is a process with several procedures, which include the need for approval of the operation by the External Financing Commission (Cofiex) –made up of members of the economic team and the Itamaraty– and by the Senate.
This is not a lost fund, but a loan that needs to be repaid.
The advantage, in World Bank disbursements, is that the interest rates are much lower than any other source of financing and a long-term credit.
Thanks to the PEC of the Explosion, approved at the end of last year, the Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) government obtained a “license” to invest beyond the spending ceiling this year.
The budget of the Ministry of Transport, for example, practically quadrupled in comparison with previous years.
There is nothing certain, however, about the volume of public investment in federal roads from 2024 onwards. Everything depends, to some extent, on the new fiscal framework.
This is where the World Bank financing comes in, guaranteeing more public contributions to the road network.
“The investment needs continuity”, said the Minister of Transport, Renan Filho, to CNN .
He explained that the World Bank’s proposal is to structure a program called Crema 2.0, a kind of second version of Crema, a type of contract widely used in the Growth Acceleration Program (PAC).
This contractual modality usually covers the removal of the asphalt and the restoration of its lower layers, followed by a more robust road maintenance project, lasting between three and five years.
At the height of the PAC, 65% of the network managed by Dnit was covered by Crema-type contracts.
“The Brazilian case was a world example because it was a hiring for performance, not for engineering work. The contracted company needed to prove the maintenance of the quality of the pavement in order to be remunerated”, said Renan Filho.
The World Bank’s idea is to have contracts for 10 to 20 years, with the possibility of expanding the capacity of some highways and building third lanes. In recent years, due to the fall in investments, the quality of Brazilian highways has deteriorated.
According to the National Transport Confederation (CNT), stretches of road managed by the public authorities and classified as bad, bad or regular were 67.5% of the network in 2019.
They rose to 75.3% in 2022. Items such as pavement conditions, signaling and track geometry are evaluated.
Source: CNN Brasil
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