Liésio Pereira
Reporter - Agência Brasil

São Paulo - The federal government hopes to award the concession for the BR-163 highway, which connects Cuiabá (Mato Grosso) to Santarém (Pará), in six months. This information comes from the Minister of Transportation, Alfredo Nascimento. "It is a very important highway, chiefly for the Brazilian Center-West, for the country's grain production, because it will diminish export transportation costs. Our expectation is that next year the highway, which extends for about 1.5 thousand kilometers, will be transferred to private hands and be paved," he said.

The Minister also informed that improving the so-called Mercosur integration highway, the BR-101, has harnessed the government's attention. "We are working on the southern part, in Rio Grande do Sul and Santa Catarina, to duplicate the lanes. This project should cost US$ 626 million (R$ 1.5 billion). In this year's budget we have already contracted and pledged (a commitment to transfer funds) around US$ 208.9 million (R$ 500 million), that is, a third of the project's cost," he stated.

Yesterday (2), Nascimento participated in the closing session of the II Logistics Seminar, organized by the Federation of Industries of the State of São Paulo (Fiesp) during the South America Intermodal fair.

Translation: David Silberstein