The Government of Mario Abdo Benítez accelerates the Cercanías Train project, which strikingly underwent important modifications during this administration. The initial approach was to make a tender and not include a millionaire loan. However, the current authorities chose to introduce substantial changes to the initiative.
Roberto Salinasformer president of Ferrocarriles del Paraguay (Fepasa), referred in an interview with Universo / Nación Media radio to the bill “That establishes special provisions and financing for the execution and implementation of the Commuter Train in the section between the city of Asunción and the city of Ypacaraí”, which was approved yesterday in the Senate.
Although he made it clear that the Cercanías Train project is very important for the public, there are specific issues to be raised in this regard. “The The problem is in the business model. At the time, we analyzed various models, we saw your concession, your PPP (public-private alliance), and in the technical and financial analysis we saw that the best business model was to associate with a private company that risked capital so that the risk is shared and thus the State did not give capital and did not borrow,” he said.
Related note: Senate approves millionaire investment for the Cercanías Train project
He pointed out that the previous project, which did not include a loanwas extremely competitive, since A tender was established, where the bidder had to offer the best technology at the lowest cost. “What is not understood is why they are going to indebt the country now, since the project can be done with private investment,” he questioned.
Finally, he commented that in April 2019 he left Fepasa and that he exposed before the president Mario Abdo Benitez that There were 26 companies that presented themselves with financing for this important project, so everything was on track to make a public call for bids. “I had understood that the President was going to carry out the bidding process but something happened that that process was paralyzed and another attack began, inefficient, transparent and competitive; expensive and with a lot of debt, ”he explained.
He also recalled that the signature Hyundai He became one of the interested parties and in the past he came to propose a direct contract for 550 million dollars, but the Paraguayan State rejected it because it considered that it did not offer the best technology and that the cost was too high. Added to the above was the idea of having a transparent contract through a tender.
I also read this: Official supporters behind the Cercanías Train project, the last slap of the government?
The implementation of this project, which has half the sanction of Congress, consists of key points in its wording:
-It is authorized to take steps to finance the Cercanías Train up to a maximum of 300 million dollars.
-A guarantee and liquidity trust will be established in the MOPC.
-A concession will be made for 40 years without a public tender.
Here the Tren Cercanía project
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