For months, the National Infrastructure Agencyura (ANI) and the concessionaire Autopistas el Caribe have spoken with the communities near the project Rutas Caribe 2 in order to reach a consensus on the future of the tolls for the work. However, after several refusals from the ‘No More Tolls Committee’, the contract could be liquidated.
In this regard, the Colombian Chamber of Infrastructure (CCI) points out that the arguments of this Committee are as refutable as despicable, with the demand for the removal of the Turbaco toll booth.
(They release workers who had been kidnapped on the Catatumbo road).
“In effect If this happens, the highway initiative would face serious problems to guarantee its financial closure. To such an extent that the ANI could choose to liquidate the contract early, a decision that would only bring with it a barrage of tremendously harmful consequences for connectivity, competitiveness and development of the Caribbean Coast”, acknowledges Caicedo.
* 100020*(Autopistas del Caribe contract, on the verge of being liquidated).
In addition, the termination of the contract would put 4,800 direct jobs and 2,700 indirect jobs at stake which are precisely what contemplates generating the project.
(‘We are left without debt, with capital and with a strategic partner’).
Similarly, for the CCI, it would increase the insecurity of the road, it would slow down the economic dynamics of the municipalities it crosses and, no less worrying, there would be an increase of close to 40% in travel times between the capitals of Atlántico and Bolívar.
(With Odinsa Airports, Grupo Argos consolidates alliance with Macquarie).
Regarding the last proposal made by the ANI to the Committee, the CCI considers that it is a sensible way out but unfortunately, it has not been accepted by the committee in question.
* 100036*All of this is the result of «cheap politicking and the irresponsible opportunism of a few who can frustrate road development on the North Coast,» Caicedo concluded.
PORTFOLIO
