Paes announces concession of the Transolímpica highway.
The mayor of Rio stated that the PPP (Public-Private Partnership) will be finalized next week; the expressway will connect Barra da Tijuca to Deodoro, in the Rio suburbs; the statement was made this Tuesday at an international seminar at Firjan, the state's industry headquarters.
247 - In the heart of Rio's industrial district, Mayor Eduardo Paes declared that the concession for the Transolímpica expressway will be finalized next week. The expressway will run from Barra da Tijuca to Deodoro and will connect two of the main competition hubs for the 2016 Olympic Games.
The announcement was made during a speech to business people about the city’s biggest public-private partnership, the Porto Maravilha project, at an international seminar at the headquarters of the Federation of Industries of the state of Rio de Janeiro (Firjan), in the city center. He was talking about public-private partnerships (PPPs), on Tuesday afternoon (17), to guests from Latin American countries.
"We have the largest PPP in Brazil, worth R$ 7,6 billion, which will be responsible for all the works in the second phase of the Porto Maravilha project, and perhaps the second largest, that of the Parque dos Atletas. Furthermore, next week we will finalize the concession for the Transolímpica, an expressway that will connect Barra da Tijuca and Deodoro, two of the main competition hubs for the 2016 Olympic Games. In other words, these are fundamental agreements for our city to develop," concluded Paes.
Paes advocated for increased infrastructure investment through these partnerships and concessions to Latin American businesses. He stated that there is no other option for Brazilian public administrators and cited the example of the port project.
"We can compare Rio's case to the challenges Brazil faces today. Our city spent years without the necessary infrastructure investments. Currently, we see that it would be impossible to carry out this enormous set of works in the city without relying on the private sector. How could we accomplish so much in such a short period of time? That's why we will continue to bet on this model. That's how we will make Rio an even greater city," he said.
The event's program included six panels that discussed the state of PPPs and concessions in Brazil and four other countries – Peru, Mexico, Chile, and Spain – as well as possibilities for improving the activity in the areas of electricity, airports, sanitation, infrastructure, and legislation. The meeting was organized by the Brazilian Association of Engineering Consultants (ABCE) and the Union of Architecture and Engineering (SINAENCO), on the occasion of the annual convention of the Pan-American Federation of Consultants (FEPAC), in Rio de Janeiro.