ANPTrilhos upholds the Program to Support Municipal Concessions launched by the Brazilian government

* Joubert Fortes Flores Filho

Based on the strong demand from the municipal governments and to encourage investments in the infrastructure area, the Brazilian president Michel Temer has signed the Provisional Measure to establish the Program to Support Municipal Concessions, which aims for the creation of a fund to finance studies and projects. The government’s plan is to give support for the cities to develop studies aimed at concessions or Public-Private Partnerships (PPP) in the urban mobility, sanitation, public lights areas, among others.

The National Association of Passenger Rail Operators (ANPTrilhos) congratulates the Federal Government for this action. This is an important instrument to marshal the city halls to provide an adequate infrastructure to attend the population and develop the cities. The Program, which grant a fund of R$180 million financed by BNDES, Banco do Brasil, Caixa and FGTS, will aid the city halls creating a bank of projects capable of making real the structuring investments so necessary for the concessions in the mobility area, among others.

The projects for urban mobility are highly attractive for the private sector. Important passengers rail transport projects are been executed with private participation. After around 15 years of paralysed works, the metro of Salvador became a reality for the local population through a PPP. In Rio de Janeiro, the implementation of the Light Rail Vehicle (LRV), also as a PPP, has amplified the network that attends the population; it has also provided the revitalization of the city’s central and port regions. These are only a few examples of well-designed projects for the structuring of transport lines on tracks and which will have the strength, through this Federal Government measure, to be replicated in every medium and large Brazilian cities.

With view at the importance of the rail transport for the citizens and for the mobility in the cities, ANPTrilhos defends its inclusion as a priority in the public policies that guide city’s governments. There is no project and work in rail transportation that does not have strategic and fundamental feature.

ANPTrilhos makes its contribution for the reflexion and aids at the starting point for thinking about urban mobility on tracks. The Association is at service of the Municipal Governments to contribute for the improvement of urban mobility and quality of life of the population.

* Joubert Fortes Flores Filho, President of the council of the National Association of Passenger Rail Operators (ANPTrilhos)