BRAZIL: Major infrastructure projects will in future be managed by Infra SA, a public company formed by the merger of railway business Valec Engenharia Construções e Ferrovias SA with planning and logistics company Empresa de Planejamento e Logística SA, both of which were wholly state-owned. The merged organisation will be more sufficient and competitive, the government believes, with lower operating costs.
In a statement following the announcement in Brasilia, the Ministry of Infrastructure explained that Infra SA would be charged ‘with the mission of speeding up railway engineering works, providing planning services and structuring innovation projects in the transport sector, in order to improve the lives of Brazilians’.
Minister of Infrastructure Marcelo Sampaio said that ‘today we open a new chapter in the infrastructure sector in Brazil ― a chapter that we want to continue advancing’. He described Infra SA as ‘a company that has already started structuring more than 30 projects in the port sector, eight projects in the airport sector, our first PPPs in the infrastructure sector, and more than 20 road projects totalling more than 13 000 km’. He said that the company had ‘responsible, technical, qualified, integral management’.
Infra SA will be responsible for railway projects and concessions previously controlled by Valec, including Ferrovia Norte-Sul, Ferrovia de Integração Oeste-Leste and Ferrovia de Integraçao Centro-Oeste, which was launched in September 2021. Valec also had stakes in the Ferroeste and Transnordestina projects.
EPL played a key role in developing the National Logistics Plan 2035, which aims to provide a strategic vision for Brazil’s future transport network. This Plan was approved by the Ministry of Infrastructure in October 2021.
