THE Brazilian government's latest Growth Acceleration Plan (PAC) includes metro projects for the first time, with 15 urban transport schemes listed.

The third edition of the government's infrastructure investment package was announced by Brazil’s president, Mr Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, in a ceremony in Rio de Janeiro on August 11. The full PAC has an estimated total investment of Reais 1.7 trillion ($US 342.5bn), including Reais 1.4 trillion to be invested by 2026 and Reais 300bn to be invested after 2026. Reais 33bn is earmarked for urban transport.

The plan includes 13 urban transport projects, including eight which are at the construction stage and five still being studied:

  • Salvador and Lauro de Freitas, Bahia: metro line - works
  • Fortaleza, Ceará: Fortaleza Metro - East Line 1 - works
  • Fortaleza, Ceará: Fortaleza Metro - East Line 2 -  works
  • Brasília, Federal District: expansion of the Ceilândia Metro - works
  • Brasília, Federal District: metro modernisation - works
  • São Paulo: extensions of Metro Line 2 Green Vila Prudente - Penha and Penha - Guarulhos - works
  • São Paulo: extension of CPTM Line 9 - Grajaú/Varginha - works
  • São Vicente and Santos, São Paulo: Baixada Santista light rail system - works
  • Maceió, Alagoas: rail transport - study
  • João Pessoa, Paraíba: rail transport - study
  • Recife, Pernambuco: metro upgrade - study
  • Rio de Janeiro: metro Line 3 - study, and
  • Natal, Rio Grande do Norte: rail transport - study.

Two passenger rail projects are also included:

  • São Paulo: investment in São Paulo - Campinas inter-city project train, and
  • studies of national passenger and freight projects.

Freight transport

The new PAC includes provisions to attract investment partners to support rail freight projects such as the West-East Integration Railway (Fiol), the Transnordestina Railway and the Ferrogrão line between Mato Grosso and Pará.

Economic feasibility studies and environmental licensing is pending for the Ferrogrão project.

More than Reais 30bn is expected to be invested in Brazil’s rail freight network over the next four to five years. The PAC also includes works promised in PACs 1 and 2 that were not launched or completed, such as the Transnordestina Railway, which was announced in 2006.

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