MTOP plans railway tender for second half of 2022; visiting international stakeholders

The Minister of Transport and Public Works, Marcelo Cabrera, ordered that the competition for the delegation to the private sector of the process of repowering and rehabilitation of the railway system for the transport of tourists, people and cargo be done in the second half of 2022; while from now on, in this first quarter, it is expected to work on its planning and structuring.

This was reported by the Ministry of Public Works, which also said that the idea is to carry out a “sustainable rehabilitation of the railway, under modern standards that allow substances that pollute the environment to be replaced by electric traction systems, which favor the decarbonization of transport”.

The Ministry is now in charge of managing the railway infrastructure, made up of 965.6 km of railway, tractive and towed equipment (81 units), as well as surrounding movable and immovable property (35 rehabilitated stations and 60 not rehabilitated).

Additionally, the minister announced through a tweet that these days he has met with several interested parties on the railway issue.

Indeed, these days visit Ecuador a mission of representatives of the Reliance International company, which seeks to promote the Production and Tourism Train. This morning, executives Marcus Mukoro, CEO of Reliance Rail; William Stills, representative in Ecuador; Bo Ritz, representative of the North American bank, and Jorge Espinoza, representative of Thomasson, gave a press conference to inform that they are interested in the construction of a section of railway that would go from San Lorenzo to Loja.

The representatives assured that Tomorrow they will meet with President Guillermo Lasso to let him know their proposal. This line would pass through four ports, such as San Lorenzo, Posorja, Guayaquil and Puerto Bolívar, and nine dry ports, which are productive poles. The idea is also to use the line that exists. According to William Stills, this section should be complemented with other segments that it would cross from east to west, also on the mining route, among others. According to Stills, Ecuador requires some 5,200 kilometers of roads to fully develop the project. However, he says that, in his opinion, more companies could come to the country to push the completion of the rest of the sections. For his part, Marcos Mukoro commented that a project of this type will help increase Ecuador’s GDP and generate employment.

Prior to the meeting with Lasso, they held talks with the Minister of Transport and with representatives of the companies that manage various ports on the Coast.

Stills also indicated that his idea would be to sign a prior agreement to present his pre-feasibility and feasibility studies and work in a coordinated manner. However, he explained that, although the Ministry is interested in his project, they have been told that this would not be the right thing to do in the face of an open contest. The issue is in the hands of the Secretariat of Public-Private Partnershipshe explained, but he was also annoyed at certain regulatory changes that would be about to be executed.

In any case, the The Ministry has indicated that, until the concession process begins, the viability of the operation of the enabled sections is being analyzed, with the financial, logistical and human resource support of several decentralized autonomous governments (GAD) and of civil society. For this purpose, the pilot plan is coordinated with the Ministry of Tourism, which includes the analysis and pronouncement of Ferrocarriles del Ecuador.

Also, for guard the national railway infrastructure until this state portfolio obtain resources to maintain it and give it security, inter-institutional agreements, loans or the corresponding legal instrument are expected to be made with the GADs through which the railway system passes and that have the support of the private sector, to carry out the respective maintenance and provide security within its jurisdiction.

The national government calls on the citizens and the GADs where the railway passes to commit to fulfilling this first objective of caring for the heritage assets that belong to all Ecuadorians.

In this context, together with the Municipality of Quito, the Undersecretary of Land and Rail Transport, Mario Pardo, coordinates a new inter-institutional agreement to rehabilitate and provide security in the stations located in the Chiriyacu-El Quinche sectionin order to reactivate social activities and enterprises and, as a consequence, tourism and the local economy.

To guarantee the profitability and sustainability of the railway, this State portfolio promotes agreements with multilateral organizations to obtain legal, technical and economic support for the start of the delegation process to the private sector, together with the Technical Secretariat of Public-Private Associations (APP ).