Santos-Guarujá underwater tunnel is qualified by PPI

The ministers of the Investment Partnership Program (PPI) board approved the qualification of the project of building the underwater tunnel that will connect Santos to Guarujá.

With this approval, the federal government takes a leadership position in the project of building a bridge over the navigation channel to connect the insular (urban) and continental areas of Santos. The income to fund this initiative was generated by renewing the contract for the Anchieta-Imigrantes System, a state highway operated by the Ecovias concessionaire.

The proposal to qualify the underwater tunnel project, presented by the Santos Port Authority (SPA), was included in the 19th ordinary meeting of the PPI council, which took place on December 16th at Palácio do Planalto, the headquarters of the Brazilian executive power.

With the qualification in the program, the project will be considered a priority by the federal government, which will expedite the processes of completing technical studies, defining the contracting model, and enabling the auction of choice by the investor.

Therefore, there is no clear definition of whether the tunnel will be built and operated through a public-private partnership (PPP), a concession contract, or even incorporated into the list of investments made in the privatization of the Port of Santos.

Preliminary studies conducted by SPA indicate that the tunnel will cost between R$3.5 billion and R$4 billion, having at least an 800 meters-long stretch underwater and another 700 meters of loops at both ends, totaling 1.5 km of drivable areas.

In the plan originally designed by the government of the State of São Paulo, Ecovias should build a bridge to fulfill the same objective; that is, to make the “dry” connection between the two cities. In this case, the increase in revenue generated by the renewal of the Ecovias’ contract, which may be extended until 2033, will be used to fund the project.

To the business magazine Valor, Bruno Stupello, director of business development and regulation at SPA, argued that the submerged tunnel project has been discussed “for almost a century”. “It is the best dry connection project that can exist to serve the region”, he guaranteed.

Stupello also points out that the underwater tunnel will be a safer alternative to small boats (catraias), which cross the two banks carrying about 20 thousand people per day, as well as to ferries, which “spend most of their time not in movement” as they have to give preference to the larger vessels that keep the Port of Santos going.

In addition, he stressed that the project will connect the central urban areas of the two cities in such a way that the traffic of cars, trucks, bicycles, and the LRV (that would be extended to Guarujá) will cross ever shorter distances.

According to the director of SPA, the underwater tunnel project is fully compatible with the expansion of the Port of Santos after its privatization. It also goes, he said, for the use of areas (at least 6 million m²), for the construction of new port terminals, as well as for the dredging strategy (the top of the tunnel would be more than 17 meters deep).

Source: Valor Econômico

To read the full original article, visit the link:

https://valor.globo.com/brasil/noticia/2021/12/16/ppi-deve-qualificar-tunel-submerso-santos-guaruja-e-inviabilizar-ponte-da-ecovias.ghtml 

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