Government, Rumo at odds over railroad
Rumo, the railroad operator controlled by businessman Rubens Ometto, and the Ministry of Infrastructure disagree on the best alternative for a 600-km extension of the Malha Norte railroad (formerly FerroNorte). The project consists of extending the railway, which currently ends in Rondonópolis, in southern Mato Grosso state (where Rumo has a large cargo terminal), to Lucas do Rio Verde, in the agricultural heart of the state.
The company's intention is to complete the work by obtaining an amendment to its concession contract for the Malha Norte concession, which expires in 2079. The request has already been submitted to the National Agency for Land Transportation (ANTT), without any concrete progress so far.
Minister Tarcísio Freitas, however, understands that building such an extensive railroad stretch under this model, without holding a new bidding process, would be subject to litigations at the Federal Court of Accounts (TCU) and to legal complaints by other companies potentially harmed.
Last week, Mr. Ometto and Minister Freitas talked again about the project, but failed to reach an agreement. Article 27 of Law 13,448/2017, which establishes the guidelines for the extension of concessions in the infrastructure sector, allows the railroads under concession to have new stretches or branches "with the necessary extension to serve cargo-generating hubs."
The law, however, rules that the concessionaire must prove that the new stretch is economically inviable if detached from the concession. Since this is an undertaking that reaches the heart of soybean production in the country, the ministry believes that there will be plenty of investors who would not agree it is inviable.
Malha Norte (formerly named Ferronorte, built by late businessman Olacyr de Moraes) is a 755-kilometer-long broad-gauge railroad. At that time the biggest individual soybean producer on the planet, Mr. Moraes dedicated himself to the implementation of the initial 500 kilometers of the railroad in the 1990s, connecting the municipalities of Santa Fé do Sul (São Paulo) and Alto Araguaia (Mato Grosso).
Later, during the Lula and Rousseff administrations, the original contract was renegotiated. The company ALL, which then owned the network, extended it to Rondonópolis. This rail corridor joins São Paulo railroad Malha Paulista (whose concession was recently extended in exchange for multi-billion investments to increase capacity) and flows into the Santos Port, in the state of...
Para continuar a ler
PEÇA SUA AVALIAÇÃO