The effects due to the road closure between Cauca and Nariño, due to the collapse that occurred on January 9 in the jurisdiction of the municipality of Rosas (Cauca), the tension rises with the passing of the days. In fact, President Gustavo Petro, on his Twitter account, announced his soon return from Europe, to deal with the situation in the southwestern part of the country.
(Read: Government will buy crops in Nariño and more measures for the emergency).
The president convened an extraordinary Council of Ministers in Ipiales, Nariño, to attend to the situation that the departments are going througha fact that represents great risks, not only for the regional economy but also for the rest of the country.
Before the infrastructure sector, the Government presented in recent days the temporary and definitive solutions to deal with this situation.
In a meeting, the general director of the National Institute of Roads (Invías), Juan Alfonso Latorre, announced that in the next three months the entity will build a definitive connection of the Panamericana of 2 kilometersdirectly executed with contractors through manifest urgency of Invías.
From the Colombian Chamber of Infrastructure (CCI) they indicated that in the meeting with the entities and authorities in charge of the emergencyamong which are the Ministry of Transportation, Invías, and other institutions, were informed that the structuring of the Pasto- Popayán corridor is currently being completed, as a long-term solution.
“This year they will proceed with the bidding process for the complete corridor, a project that will carry out the entire dual carriageway and the construction of the Timbío – El Estanquillo corridor. For this road (approximately 270 kilometers), the Minister of Transportation stated that this project could cost between capex and opex between $12 billion to $14 billion”, assured Jorge Alberto Marín, technical vice president of the CCI.
(In addition: The passage of trucks that were dammed in Ipiales, Nariño begins).
In turn, the president of the CCI, Juan Martín Caicedo, explained that the problem in this road axis is an opportunity to advance the purpose of building these roads.
“This tragedy paradoxically compromises the Government, which has stated that it has resolved a very old problem, on which the entities that represent the country’s infrastructure have reflected. In the sense of the highway that goes from Popayán to Pasto, for many years it should have been reconsidered through a variant of Timbío and El Estanquillo”, indicated the union leader last Friday.
For now, to deal with the emergency situation, the Minister of Mines and Energy, Irene Vélez, reported on the creation of a Monitoring Committee with the governors of Nariño and Cauca.
Additionally, indicated that they are working with the ministries of the Interior, Transport and Finance, in order to guarantee supply in the territory affected by this contingency.
Also, the portfolio manager highlighted that This week a ship with almost 1.6 million gallons of fuel will arrive in Tumaco“which sailed from the port of Barranquilla to Panama on January 18 with gasoline and diesel,” according to the Ministry.
On the other hand, the entity indicated that there will be four supply schemes that have been developed since the time of the collapse.
(See: Unions ask to declare an Economic and Social Emergency in Nariño).
Among these, it stands out that between January 17 and 18 98,000 gallons of diesel and 630,000 of motor gasoline were dispatched from Neiva to Nariñowhich will be distributed to the stations of the department and Cauca.
In addition, last week a barge with almost 30,000 gallons of diesel arrived in Tumaco and the vessel with 65,000 gallons is at the dock.
In the same way, from January 25, by this same seaway, a ship roundtrip operation will begin with another 30,000 barrels of fuel.
“Regarding the possibility of importing from Ecuador, due to price and logistics factors, at this time it is considered that the most convenient is to continue the supply plan with the domestic product”, says the Ministry of Mines.
At the same time, the Ministry of Mines and Energy assured that for the supply of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) it is in transit to the city of Pasto a total of 51,000 kilograms of the product and 56,000 more to 11 other municipalities in the region.
The ministry reported that as of January 17, the LPG available in Nariño for cylinders and stationary tanks was 423 tons, of which Montagás SA has 228,177 kilograms available to provide the service in Pasto, Espino and Espriella. Likewise, the municipality of Santa Bárbara, Nariño, is served by sea from Buenaventura, through a barge that moves about 64 tons of LPG every 36 hours.
Finally, the Ministry reiterated the commitment to fuel supply and that this has the least possible impact for users of the department, who even encounter other difficulties in terms of agriculture.
Both in the department of Cauca and in Nariño there could be increases in the prices of agricultural products, due to harvest, production and transportation losses. In addition, adversities also occur with fruits, which have effects, especially in transport.
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