This Thursday, December 1, the Chamber of Senators will discuss the Cercanías Train Law project.
The project is “Which 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’ Project, under the Ministry of Public Works and Communications (MOPC ) and the Ferrocarriles del Paraguay SA Company (FEPASA); and the subscription of the respective sub-concession contract is authorized”.
Desirée Masi, national senator for the PDP, reported that the initiative still has many objections, so it cannot yet be dealt with in plenary.
“We have many objections that are based on technical studies by Executive agencies. For example, there is no ruling from the National Electricity Administration (ANDE). It is an electric train and ANDE asked for more time to give its opinion”, he stated.
He argued that there are about 30 observations from the Technical Planning Secretariat (STP), which indicate that the possible demand of users is overestimated, among other issues.
That is, how many people will use. And that is important to know to know how much the return on the investment will be, which will be around US$ 500 million.
“They carried out a survey in Ferrocarriles del Paraguay SA (Fepasa) in December 2020, and 60% of these studies were not viable, that is, there is no serious study on the demand,” questioned the legislator.
He also criticized that there is no cadastral study either, only a survey of buildings, businesses and houses, which will be affected.
“We don’t know exactly how much compensation will cost for building owners who are stationed in the path of the railway. If they are occupations of more than 60 to 70 years. You have to negotiate with the fronters and there is no cadastral study », he warned.
Finally, he maintained that there is talk of a government-to-government agreement, but it has not yet been signed.
«That agreement is not there, it will be signed. and then there is talk of a consortium, which may be the best in the world, but a Korean private company will come to build the law. We don’t even know if it is a concession, a PPP, or a direct award made by law. I don’t know how the DNCP law will be with this, “she concluded.
