March 8, 2023, 11:27 PM
March 8, 2023, 11:27 PM
The Minister of Public Works, Services and Housing, Édgar Montaño, signed this Wednesday an act of commitment with the inhabitants of Yapacaní to execute the construction of the Faja Norte highway.
“We have reached a satisfactory agreement with our brothers from the municipality of Yapacaní, who requested the construction of the Faja Norte highway of 94 kilometers long”, he specified in a press conference.
Montaño explained that this highway will be carried out in two stages in the area north of the department of Santa Cruz, in the first part will be built 34 kilometers and more than 34 million bolivianos will be invested.
“We hope that by March 15 they will send us all the corresponding documentation and we will safely We will give priority to the search for financing and there surely the Santa Cruz Governor’s Office will begin the bidding process for this important highway project,” said the minister.
In addition, he stressed that this work belongs to the Departmental Network, therefore, it is full responsibility of the Government to manage and guarantee its construction, as it is stated in the Political Constitution of the State and the Law of Autonomy in paragraphs I and III.
“It is a departmental network and the responsibility for financing is clearly the Government (cruceña), but in this case we have accepted the request of our brothers from Yapacaní for the Ministry of Planning to seek financing, but on the debt, who is going to bear the expenses is the Government”, I mention.
Montaño did not miss the opportunity to touch the subject of the confinement of Luis Fernando Camacho, noting that the Governorate “is without a head” and that for this reason the request of the living of Yapacaní was not resolved, who blocked the northern route for three days and generated a economic loss of Bs 425 thousand per day to Vias Bolivia.
“In the end, without being the responsibility of our national government, we have had to lower two ministers to solve this (the road blockade) and we We warn that Santa Cruz has no head at the moment and that is why these problems are arising”, he lamented.
Likewise, he said that the route that connects Santa Cruz with the tropics of Cochabamba is expedited, since the residents of Yapacaní lifted their measure of pressure after the agreement signed with the national government.
“Since 2012, the construction has been managing of this highway and it was not known when the Government was going to take some action to prioritize (its execution)”, he added.
While the Minister of Public Works was awarded the solution to the conflict, from the Santa Cruz Governorate, Alejandro Borda (of Economic Development) and the director of Public Works, Fernando Terceros, reported that they held a meeting at noon this Wednesday with the mayor of Yapacaní, Juan Carlos Valles, and leaders of said municipality, to deal with the demand for the paving sectionmeeting in which the departmental entity exposed the technical and legal criteria of the work.
Among the agreed commitments, Borda explained that a referral will be made to the Ministry of Public Works of the reiteration of request for sectorial prioritization“given that by instruction of Governor Luis Fernando Camacho, work is always being done for the development of the people of Santa Cruz.”
Therefore, “the Government is fully prepared to prioritize this road project by sector, and in the same way, requests a meeting with their respective competencies within the three levels of the State”.
At this point, the Mayor Valles thanked the departmental authorities for this space for dialogueand said that he hopes that once the document is sent to the national government, progress will be made in this long-awaited road project for the Integrated North region.
“In this understanding, we want to thank the will of the departmental government. We will be waiting for Wednesday (March 15) so that we can have the proof that this document is going to enter the Ministry of Public Works (…) We hope that these agreements are very productive,” he said.
