ANTT signs a contract with a company that wants to build a bullet train – 03/02/2023 – Market

The shareholders of TAV Brasil signed, this Thursday (2nd), the authorization contract with ANTT (National Land Transport Agency) for the construction of a high-speed rail line, the so-called bullet train, linking São Paulo to the Rio de Janeiro.

The authorization request had been approved by the agency in mid-February. The authorization model, introduced by the Jair Bolsonaro government, aims to streamline investments in the sector, giving the private sector the possibility of proposing new stretches — before, the federal government tendered the works in the concession model.

For this model, initially, there is an analysis of the so-called “conceptual project” and the technical specifications by ANTT. It was for this stage that TAV Brasil obtained approval from the agency.

With the approval, the company now has a period of up to two years to present the development of the engineering project and its implementation, at the risk of losing the authorization. It also needs to obtain environmental permits.

The company will now start a round of negotiations with mayors and governors and, depending on the agreements, there may be changes in the route presented to ANTT.

An example: the initial project foresees the disembarkation in Santa Cruz, in Rio de Janeiro. However, if there is an agreement with the city of Rio, it would be possible to take the train to the city center.

The project layout foresees 378 km of railroads connecting the two capitals. The estimated duration of the trip is an hour and a half. For this, the train must move at 350 km/h, which will place it among the fastest in the world.

With a share capital of BRL 100,000, the company was created in February 2021 and has as partners Infra SA Investimentos, Global Ace Participações e Investimentos, lawyer Marcos Joaquim Gonçalves Alves and the former president of ANTT Bernardo Figueiredo —president of TAV Brazil.

The proposal, however, is viewed with distrust by the market. The construction of the bullet train between São Paulo and Rio is an old project that never got off the ground. The theme motivated the creation of a state-owned company during the Dilma Rousseff government, but it did not work.