The Chamber of Senators postponed the commuter train bill until Tuesday, December 13, it will be the second item on the agenda. This treatment will be only for your study in particular since in general it was already approved on the date with 26 votes for approval, 6 senators for rejection, seven abstentions and 6 absentees.
Stephan Rasmussen, national senator for the PPQ, affirmed that the project authorizes the Ministry of Finance to carry out procedures for a loan contract. But this is not necessary to do it by law since the Executive Branch has the power to manage these loans.
Desirée Masi, national senator for the PDP, questioned that a cadastral survey of the place was not carried out and that, in addition, there are other shortcomings.
“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.
BUZARQUIS
Salyn Buzarquis, national senator for the PLRA, affirmed that it is necessary to dimension what is being debated.
“Starting in 1861, the first railway operated in our country. But the other governments killed the railway system and began to steal even the rails. The only one in South America that does not have railways is us. I want and dream that in Paraguay we will have railways again, that this project will be the beginning. There were failed processes like the Metrobús but there is a big difference between the Metrobús and this project”, he pointed out.
He maintained that he does not believe that the Korean government is so unreliable that it wants to defraud our country.
RIERA
Enrique Riera, national senator for the ANR (Chartist), affirmed for his part that Koreans always have a seal of quality.
“This type of project can improve the quality of life of millions of Paraguayans. With the intention of doing a public-private operation does not close the idea. Political will is always lacking. We can echo thousands and thousands of people who do not realize the importance of the project”, he stated.
