4UM Investimentos will allocate R$9.3 billion to improve the BR-381 Highway in Minas Gerais, between Governador Valadares and Belo Horizonte, a 303.4-kilometer stretch. After three failed auctions, the investor group won the competition organized by the Ministry of Transport, in August last year, after the proposal to be restructured.
The concession contract was signed this Wednesday (22), in a ceremony at Palácio do Planalto in the presence of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. The winning group created Concessionária Nova 381, which will manage and be responsible for the operation and maintenance of BR-381 in Minas Gerais.
In a speech, Lula recalled that the federal government grants highway concessions without receiving grants (payment) from the winning companies, which lowers the price of tolls and helps attract investment.
“When we want to partner with a businessman, we want to build a road, do the best we can, but the businessman needs to win, otherwise he won’t make an investment. And we need to establish this rule,” he said. “Our objective is to make toll prices cheaper for the poorest people, while prioritizing the quality of the work that will be done”, added the president.
The Minister of Transport, Renan Filho, explained that, among other adjustments, two lots near Belo Horizonte were also removed from the highway concession project, which will be under the responsibility of the National Department of Transport Infrastructure (Dnit). The federal government’s investments in these public works will amount to R$1 billion.
President Lula participates in the signing ceremony of the concession contract for a section of BR-381, in Minas Gerais – José Cruz/Agência Brasil
“We corrected the project, improved the attractiveness, mitigated geological risks, engineering risks that hindered the attractiveness [para a iniciativa privada]we took it to auction after the previous government tried several times to take it and we managed to make the concession”, he highlighted.
“Brazil, today, has built a much more sustainable model [ de concessões]. Furthermore, the profitability of the contract itself also needs to be differentiated; the simplest works have to pay the private investor a lower return than the more complicated works”, added Renan Filho.
Reviews
The absence of the governor of Minas Gerais, Romeu Zema, at the event was also remembered by the ministers who spoke and by Lula himself. According to the president, the BR-381 works are part of the Growth Acceleration Program, whose portfolio was assembled with indications from state governors.
“At least that should be grateful, but he made an unnecessary deep criticism,” said Lula about the recent criticism that Zema made about the conditions of the payment of the states’ debt to the Union.
“This agreement on the debts of Minas Gerais, of the states as a whole, the governor of Minas Gerais should come here to bring me a prize, bring me a trophy from the first president of the Republic who he knows has never vetoed absolutely anything from any governor of no mayor for being against or being in opposition”, stated the president. “What we did for the states that did not pay their debt, perhaps only Jesus Christ would do if he ran for President of the Republic of that country,” added Lula.
Signing ceremony of the concession contract for a section of BR-381, in Minas Gerais – José Cruz/Agência Brasil
The highway
According to the Ministry of Transport, this portion of BR-381 in Minas Gerais is one of the federal roads with the highest record of accidents in the country, a winding stretch, single lanes for most of the route, which winds through the hills of eastern Minas Gerais, cutting through Vale do Aço. Data from the Federal Highway Police indicate that, between 2018 and 2023, there were 3,960 traffic incidents on the stretch; 420 people lost their lives on the highway.
The Minas Gerais road was put up for auction on August 29, 2024, using the criteria for the proposal with the lowest toll rate. It will be up to the new concessionaire to apply the resources planned for operational services and structural works, such as duplication, route correction and creation of escape lanes, in addition to road maintenance over the next 30 years.
Concessionária Nova 381, created by the investor group, will also offer a free toll in the first year and then a discount for frequent users and the automatic payment option for drivers. Frequent users are those who travel sections of the highway several times a month, as in the case of people who live and work in nearby cities.
The stretch covers 13 cities along the road and others that indirectly depend on it, resulting in an average traffic of 24,700 vehicles per day.
BR-381, built in the 1960s, starts in São Mateus (ES) and reaches the city of São Paulo, an important logistics corridor for the flow of industrial products.
