Federal Government Reaches Agreement With Brazilian Army for Construction of 18 km Railway in Bahia

Agreement Reached Between the Army and the Federal Government for the Construction of a Section of the West-East Integration Railway – Fiol, in Bahia

Yesterday, September 11th, an agreement was reached between the Federal Government and the Army to construct 18 km of a section of the West-East Integration Railway – Fiol, located in Bahia. The project, spanning 1,500 kilometers, will connect the city of Ilhéus in Bahia to Figueirópolis in Tocantins. Valec Engenharia, Construções e Ferrovias is the company linked to the Ministry of Infrastructure that will make this project possible.

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The contract closing ceremony between Valec and the Army was attended by President Jair Bolsonaro, who stated, “If back then, with Juscelino Kubitschek there was massive investment in highways because oil was cheap, which was good for that time, after the oil crisis this changed, after the 1970s. But few people thought about investing in railways. And we chose, before massively investing in railways, to finish the works that were already started.”

Tarcísio de Freitas, the Minister of Infrastructure, said, “So, we will interconnect Ilhéus to the North-South Railway. And as we will build the railway in the Midwest, in Mato Grosso, we will soon have a concession that will stretch from the West-Central Integration Railway (Fico), in Água Boa (MT), in the Araguaia Valley, to the port of Ilhéus. We will transform Brazilian agribusiness with these railways. We already have a north-south connection; we will soon have an east-west connection. And this is transformative for a region that is where agribusiness grows the most in Brazil.”

Tarcísio also clarified about the resources for completing the work and explained that part of the expanded grant from the Vitória a Minas Gerais Railway, from Vale, will be 500 million reais and will be invested in the acquisition of tracks for the railway “to ensure that there will be no disruption.” Additionally, the expansion of the resources for the Centro-Atlântica Railway – FCA concession is planned for the construction of the section from Barreiras (BA) to Figueirópolis (TO).

The Northeast Military Command will be responsible for this work and has already appointed the first engineering team to coordinate the operations. The construction will be carried out by the Fourth Engineering Construction Battalion. This will be the first project since 1995 where an Army engineering battalion takes on a railway project in the country. The deadline is two years, and the total cost will be R$ 115 million.