The Minister of Transport, Renan Filho, said today (3), upon taking office, that he will bet on expanding the railway network for heavy loads. According to Renan, in the short term, revisions of contracts should be carried out to unlock works on highways with private resources.
Renan Filho also mentioned the need to boost concessions. He promised to present in 15 days an action plan for the first 100 days at the head of the Transport portfolio.
“It will be necessary to look into the contracts for the 15,000 kilometers of highways granted and to increase the participation of the private sector to speed up this task”, he stated. “We will invest with discretion where it needs to be invested and we will count on the private sector to give the necessary impetus to the concessions program”, he said shortly afterwards.
The new minister cited a recent survey by the National Transport Confederation (CNT) according to which 66% of the Brazilian road network is in terrible, bad conditions or with some circulation problem.
“It is estimated that the recovery of the network would require R$ 100 billion in investments”, said Renan. “Just to illustrate, the bad condition of the network consumes, annually, 1 billion liters of diesel unnecessarily”, added the minister.
Even so, he stated that examples around the world show that continuous and growing transport by road is unsustainable, given the large agricultural and mineral production in Brazil. “The way to solve the problem, we all know, is to expand the railway network”, stressed the minister.
Renan also pointed out the drop in investments observed in the last four years, which was confirmed by his predecessor, Marcelo Sampaio. “We have had a budget shortage these last four years,” said the former Minister of Infrastructure, who was the first in the Bolsonaro government to directly transfer the position to his successor.
The Ministry of Transport was recreated by the new president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who dismembered the Ministry of Infrastructure in two, also creating the portfolio of Ports and Airports, whose head is Marcio França.
Several politicians and authorities attended the inauguration of Renan Filho in Transport, including former president José Sarney, the president of the Federal Audit Court (TCU), Bruno Dantas, and the appointed president of the Economic and Social Development Bank (BNDES) , Aloízio Mercadante, as well as senator Renan Calheiros (MDB-AL), father of the new minister.
Also in attendance was Paulo Dantas, an ally of the Calheiros and current governor of Alagoas, a state that has been governed by Renan Filho for the past eight years.
