Araguaia-Tocantins: Padilha Promises Solution to Environmental
Barriers
5/21/99
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RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:
Title: Araguaia-Tocantins: Padilha Promises Solution to
Environmental Barriers
Source: A Gazeta, Cuiaba
Status: Copyright 1999, contact source for permission to reprint
Date: May 21, 1999
Araguaia-Tocantins: Padilha promises solution to environmental
barriers Source: A Gazeta, Cuiab , May 21, 1999
Transportation Minister Eliseu Padilha declared yesterday in Cuiab
that the barrier of environmental licenses is practically solved and
he believes in the quick realization of projects for rock removal and
dredging on the Hidrovia Araguaia-Tocantins-Rio das Mortes. He
explained that the Environmental Impact Statement (EIA-Rima), the
obstacle that is blocking the advance of the project, was officially
delivered the day before yesterday to Ibama.
"This means that there is already a pre-negotiation between Ibama and
the Transportation Ministry so that the hidrovia project moves
forward more quickly," he declared. Padilha participated in the
opening of the Third Meeting on the Central-Northern Multimodal
Corridor and hidrovias. Besides the minister, participating in the
meeting on business opportunities of the hidrovia were governor Dante
de Oliveira, senators, state and federal deputies, and other
political leaders, businessmen, and representantives of various
groups from the states of Mato Grosso, Tocantins, Maranhao, and Par .
Padilha said that the Central-western region, and especially Mato
Grosso, are at a historic moment. He sid that president Cardoso
decided to include the hidrovia in the Brazil in Action program
because he considers it to be a priority. Navigation is only possible
during a period of 6 months, when the rivers are high. With the
implantation of the hidrovia, navigation will extend year-round.
Producers are already counting on the reduction in import and export
costs via the hidrovia, which is now navigable only to Xamboi (TO).
The project, which today operates at only 1% of its eventual
capacity, will require investments of $132 million. Believing that
Ibama will grant the licenses, the minister feels there will be no
problems during the public hearings.
Navigation Aids guarantee navigation
The president of the Pro-Hidrovia Committee, Adalberto Tokarski, said
yesterday that navigation via the Araguaia-Tocantins is already
possible 24 hours per day because the projectos of navigation signs
and buoys were already completed. In order to permit commercial
navigation from Xamboi to Tucuru dam, larger investments will be
needed. The hidrovia will eventually reach Guarajara Bay, in Bel,m
(PA). The minister guaranteed that navigation locks will be
constructed at Tucuru. Using the multimodal system, grains will be
loaded in Nova Xavantina or Barra do GarØas and transported to
Xamboi . There, they will continue by road to AØailŸndia, where they
will be shipped by train to the port of Sao Luis (MA). According to
technical experts following the hidrovia project, the major
complication for integrating the hidrovia is the non-navigable
stretch, near where the Araguaia and Tocantins rivers join. To
overcome this barrier, producers are transfering cargo to trucks,
which means a 300 km. trip from Xamboi to Imperatriz.
Teles Pires-Tapaj›s still undefined
Of the hidrovias, only the Teles Pires-Tapaj›s, which plans to link
Santar,m (PA) with Apiac s is not moving forward. According to mega-
businessman and senator Blairo Maggi, this hidrovia will not be
economically feasible unless it is extended another 500 km. to the
municipality of Sinop (MT).
Resources assured for Ferronorte
The president of the National Economic and Social Development Bank
(BNDES), Pio Borges, guaranteed yesterday, in Cuiab , that resources
for the second phase of the Ferronorte railroad, linking Alto Taquari
and Rondon›polis, are assured. This means an additionl $210 million
of an overall investment of $66 million by 2005. Borges also
announced that the Brazilian government is working with the Bolivian
government to obtain resources from the Inter-American Development
Bank to pave 512 km of the road which will link Mato Grosso to
Pacific ports.
In order to guarantee that BNDES, through BNDESPar, will be able to
put up its share of resources needed to finance the project, and make
the second phase of the railroad feasible, Borges endorsed
Ferronorte's proposal, confirmed yesterday by the president of the
company, Ant"nio Maciel Neto, to transport the region's entire 2001
harvest by rail.
Railroad will reach Mato Grosso in July source: Di rio de Cuiab , May
21, 1999
Maciel Neto confirmed that the inauguration of the road/rail
terminal in Alto Taquari, on the border between Mato Grosso and Mato
Grosso do Sul states, is scheduled for the second half of July. By
the end of this month, Ferronorte will conclude the first 300 km. of
the railway linking Cuiab to Sao Paulo and will complete the
terminal in Chapadao do Sul (MS).
This was confirmed yesterday, in Cuiab after the signing of a tax
exemption decree for purchase of train cars for Ferronorte, worth $24
million. The Alto Taquari terminal will be one of the country's most
modern, with a storage capacity of five tons, making it possible to
ship 250,000 tons of grains to center-southern ports
The project plans to stimulate the transport of three million tons in
a 40 million hectare area along the railway's sphere of influence.
The predictions are that over the next 6 years, 17 million tons will
be exported, with a movement of 2,000 trucks in the road-rail
terminal to be built in Rondon›polis. The train will reduce freight
costs by up to $32 per ton. The railway is scheduled to arrive in
Cuiab in the next 4 or 5 years.
Then the company will seek funding to extend the train line to Porto
Velho, Rond"nia, where goods can be shipped by hidrovia on the Rio
Madeira, reaching the Amazon River.