During the Infrastructure congress that takes place in Cartagena, the president Gustavo Petro He referred to the project for the first line of the Bogotá metro and questioned the ability to finance a metro that, he says, is more expensive than the subway.
“To date the project has changed, after 8 years, almost 9, we do not know the study and design of the other project, it was simply suspended, it was simply not to the liking of certain layers of political life that Bogotá had an underground metro, affected interests, it was not a technical or financial problem, because Colombia could sustain that project,” Petro said.
The president affirms that currently, the National Government is unaware of the design studies of the elevated metro project for Bogotá, even so, he affirms that this new form of metro is “weaker and less important than the first one”.
In the same way, he pointed out that the economic situation that occurred in 2013 was a wasted opportunity. “The 7 billion dollar project at that time cost 14 trillion pesos, the project that we still don’t know how much is worth, if it were 7 billion dollars now, it costs 35 trillion pesos,” said the president.
“What is up to us now, not as the Mayor’s Office, but as the national government, is to know how a project of 35 billion pesos can now fit into a current financial structure that is undoubtedly weaker than the one we had in 2013 or 2014” Peter assured.
The president also pointed out that “all the tram lines, the first line of the Bogotá metro, an investment that could add up to 11 to 12 billion dollars, at that time, today there is no metro, not only in the metro, but rather a physical railway line metro in use in the city of Bogotá. Not to be confused with the first line of the metro, not even a kilometer”.
And he added: “I believe that this is one of the circumstances that should call us to an evaluation of what is happening in the country, in terms of infrastructure and, above all, in terms of the paradigm shift, because if that is simply an inertia that keeps us in old technologies, the country is not advancing, it is falling behind”.
This is not the first time that the current Colombian president has criticized the first line of the Bogotá metro. He had already done it as a senator and as a candidate for the Presidency.
It should be remembered that it was Petro, when he was mayor of Bogotá (2012 – 2015), who proposed that the first line be underground. In fact, in that administration advanced basic engineering studies were carried out (they were not phase 3 studies) and the fiscal guarantee of the national Government for their financing.
However, during the mayoralty of Enrique Peñalosa the project changed radically. It went from underground to elevated and achieved all the approval processes that were required to be able to contract the project. In fact, the first line was awarded in 2019 and the start of work in 2020.
Conpes delivers guarantee to second line
The pronouncement of President Gustavo Petro is known shortly after the Conpes (National Council of Political, Economic and Social) issued a favorable concept of the Nation to grant sovereign guarantee to the Metro de Bogotá Company (EMB), so that it can contract operations of Internal or external public credit of up to 7.84 trillion pesos or its equivalent in other currencies, in order to finance the execution of the second line of the Bogotá Metro, the Suba and Engativá line.
Said credit operations will be supported with the contributions of the Nation and the District, which are contemplated in the co-financing agreement signed by the parties. The Nation will contribute 70 percent and the District 30 percent.
“We ratify the support that we have as a Government for the transport infrastructure projects of Bogotá. That today the Conpes has given us a favorable concept is one more step for this project to go ahead and start hiring the person responsible for building it,” said the minister. of Transport, Guillermo Reyes, m when announcing the guarantee of the national Government.
The guarantee is granted because the resources of the co-financing agreement for the execution of the second line, according to the fiscal availability of the Nation and the District, will be available in a longer period of time than that required by the investment dynamics of the project. .
The project for the second line of the Bogotá metro costs around 34 billion pesos and includes a route that is mostly underground.
WITH INFORMATION FROM ECONOMICAS AND BOGOTÁ