Infrastructure: With five tenders open this year, 5G concessions take off – Sectors – Economy

After the Government defined the 12 infrastructure projects that will be part of the first wave of fifth generation (5G) concessions, for an amount of 17.8 billion pesos, out of a total program estimated at 48.29 billion pesos , and after the effects of the pandemic, the bidding schedule has already begun.

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The National Infrastructure Agency (ANI) estimates that this year the tenders for five projects will be open, all of them road infrastructure, which will be awarded in the first months of 2021, and starting the new year the specifications for two river projects will be published Magdalena River and Canal del Dique) and three airport initiatives.

The first one, which is the Accesses Cali-Palmira project and whose final specifications were published in early September, contemplates 310 kilometers of road network that will be intervened with works such as the construction of simple roads, improvement of the existing corridor, interchanges and vehicular and pedestrian bridges, among others, with capital investments of 1.16 billion pesos.

This project will be joined, between November and December, by the Private Initiative (IP) ALO Sur, a 23.5-kilometer route that will connect 13th Street, near Fontibón, in Bogotá, with the Tercer Carril Bogotá-Girardot concession. , near the Chusacá toll, of which 19 kilometers will be of a new road, with investments of 660,000 million.

The director of the ANI, Manuel Gutiérrez, explained to EL TIEMPO that this process has already entered the last stages of approval by the Ministry of Finance, to then go to the National Planning Department and then open the process of manifesting interest.

If there is an interested party, an abbreviated selection will be made, as allowed by law 1508, of private initiatives, when these do not require public resources. The project, in which the businessman Mario Huertas participates with the firms Pavimentos Colombia, Coherpa and Concay, with 25 percent each, contemplates a new toll before leaving the perimeter of Bogotá and is key to improving mobility in the western access to the capital.

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5G projects are multimodal initiatives of public-private partnerships, structured and executed on the basis of institutional, financial, social and environmental sustainability.

According to the ANI, in this way they achieve greater social acceptance, when being thought from the socioeconomic reality of the communities, there is a better incorporation of environmental conditions, greater economic impact on the territories and on the country’s productivity, and incentives to use sustainable financing .

Likewise, in the north of Bogotá and the municipality of Sopó, the North Access Phase 2 project will be put out to tender to expand the North highway between 192 and 245 streets (5.83 kilometers) in both directions to five lanes, the construction of a second carriageway in Carrera 7 between streets 200 and 245, as well as the construction and improvement of 7.2 kilometers in the perimeter of the municipality of Sopó, with a capital investment of 1.27 billion pesos.

“We have felt a lot of appetite and there is great interest from the market. We have done seminars, forums and the interest is very high”, Adds the official.

Replacement of Ruta del Sol 2

The Government also aims this year to leave open the bidding for the two routes that make up the Magdalena trunk (Puerto Salgar-Barrancabermeja and Barrancabermeja-San Roque), which replace the concession of Ruta del Sol 2.

“In the first part we already filed the structuring a month ago and the second part is scheduled to file to start the process. Here the structuring has already finished ”, he indicated.
These two sections will have investments of 3.59 billion pesos, and have an extension of 259.1 kilometers and 272.1 kilometers, respectively.

The road projects of the first wave are completed by the corridor formed by the Buga-Loboguerrero and Loboguerrero-Buenaventura sections, but the tender will only open until 2021 due to the fact that two prior consultations are pending, out of a total of six. The structuring is expected to be completed in November.

On the railway issue, the bet is the concession between La Dorada, Cundinamarca, and Chiriguaná, Cesar, for freight transport, the structuring of which will close in December and which will go out in parallel with the two river projects (Magdalena river and Dique canal) in the first quarter of 2021.

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The 521 kilometer project will require capital resources of 1.8 trillion pesos.
Meanwhile, for the Magdalena River and Dique Canal PPP, prequalification has already been opened.

For the first, the validation of the technical structuring is carried out and improvements suggested by the multilateral banks are made, with the goal of open tender in the first quarter of 2021 to award the contract. In the second there is a different technical route:

“We have to do 14 prior consultations, for a huge number of communities located along the 117 kilometers of the canal. We have already started working and it is expected that by the end of the year they will be ready and the tender will be opened simultaneously with the Magdalena River PPP ”, explained the president of ANI.

Second wave, for $ 30.2 billion

In the plan of the National Infrastructure Agency, the second wave of fifth-generation concessions includes to date 10 routes whose capital investments would total 20.9 billion pesos, of which three are private initiatives that will not require public resources.

These are the Santuario-Caño Alegre project and the completion of Ruta del Sol 1, in Cundinamarca, the only sections to complete the dual carriageway between Bogotá and Medellín. These two would have a cost of 4.4 billion pesos. The project that completes the program is the private initiative of the Bogota Airport System.

At the road level, This wave includes the Zipaquirá, Cundinamarca-Barbosa, Santander road, and the Barbosa-Bucaramanga road, which would represent investments of 3.2 billion pesos and 2.9 billion pesos, respectively.

Of this second wave, the Government’s goal is to award, before August 2022, the completion of Ruta del Sol 1 and the road between Pasto and Popayán, which is the project that would need the most resources, for 4.5 billion euros. pesos.

The plan covers 4 airports

In the first wave of 5G concessions, the ANI has already completed the structuring of the private initiative for the expansion of the Cartagena airport and is awaiting the approval of the Ministry of Finance and National Planning. Investments will total 470,000 million pesos.

And in the feasibility phase, under evaluation, are the private initiatives Aeropuertos de Suroccidente (three terminals in Neiva, Cali and Buenaventura, with investments of 1.8 billion) and the new Cartagena airport, in the Bayunca sector, with a cost estimated 2.9 trillion pesos.

But the largest project, still distant and in the second wave, is the Bogota 2050 Airport System, a private initiative that will not require public resources and whose cost would be 9.4 trillion pesos.

5 questions to Manuel Felipe Gutiérrez, president of the ANI‘We hope that the effort will continue’

What adjustments will the new 5G infrastructure contracts bring?

For financing, the new contract is much more in favor of the interest of the State, but maintaining a balance so that the tender is more attractive.

There are changes in the early termination of contracts, for example, but they are adjustments that are really favorable in terms of financing and will maintain what the private companies contributed both in equity (capital) and in a fair proportion for the State so that don’t pay more than necessary.

Other important changes are that it takes into account social issues, involving a percentage for social investment, and this is positive for the funders because when it was not there, the works were paralyzed because it affected the return of flows to the funder.

What second wave projects will they put out to tender?

From the second wave, this government wants to award the conclusion of Ruta del Sol 1 and the road between Pasto and Popayán.

This program is worth almost 50 billion and the idea is that it is a State policy to continue with the advancement of infrastructure.

In the following months and years they will be delivered and the country’s infrastructure will change. We hope that the effort will continue and that it will last a decade. The projects are built on the basis of the Transport Infrastructure Master Plan, carried out with Fedesarrollo by the government in power.

What analysis has been done to the Ferropista initiative for a railway tunnel in La Línea?

It is a project that has many questions that have not been answered yet by the originators.
It is a huge investment and it is a long way from maturity and for it to become a reality. We do not make announcements because the technical studies need to mature enough. It is a railway tunnel with complications in the Central mountain range, which is not such a simple matter.

What is the iron master plan about?

The Ministry of Transport is working on it. It is a plan for the next decade that is basically the recovery of corridors and improving competitive conditions.

And what is anticipated for the expired Pacific Railroad?

We are going to advance this year in the technical, legal and financial structuring. There were many failures for various reasons. A redesign of the project is coming.

ÓMAR G. SMOKED RED
Deputy Editor of Economics and Business
On twitter: @omarahu