• Submitted by: manso
• Business and Economy
• 04 / 02 / 2011

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After seven years, the $340 million rehabilitation of Venezuela’s Central-West railroad still is incomplete, an official of Venezuela’s Instituto de Ferrocarriles del Estado (IFE) said March 31 as part of a larger announcement, according to Agencia Venezolana de Noticias.

The official didn’t explain the delays of the project connecting Barquisimeto to Puerto Cabello, whose completion AVN reported last year had been expected for the end of 2010.

Solcar, a unit of state railroad company Unión de Ferrocarriles de Cuba, is a 49-percent partner in Caracas-based Empresa para la Infraestructura Ferroviaria Latinoamericana (Ferrolasa SA), which has been in charge of the project since 2007, according to opposition publication Veneconomía.

The rehabilitation of the Central-West railroad, dubbed “the slowest railroad of the world” by Veneconomía, has a history of delays. The Venezuelan government created the Ferrolasa joint venture in 2006, after canceling a 2004 contract with China’s Yankuang Group Corp. As of late 2005, Yankuang had completed only 10 percent of the project. Completion had originally been expected for September 2006.

The Venezuelan government has not explained the delays, but opposition sources talked about labor strife under the Chinese management. IFE has had its third president since 2006.

Cuba’s involvement in the project has not been described publicly in detail, but IFE reported that professionals from the island have assisted Venezuelan technicians and engineers.

The Central-West railroad project includes reconstruction of the 21-mile Barquisimeto-Yaritagua segment, the 85-mile Yaritagua-Puerto Cabello segment and the 42-mile Yaritagua-Acarigua segment, which was “66 percent complete” as of early this year, according to an IFE official.

The Central-West railroad is the first component of Venezuela’s $22.5 billion plan to rehab and build more than 8,000 miles of railroad by 2030. The National Railway Development Plan is partly financed by China.

Ferrolasa is also providing technical assistance, basic engineering and project engineering to the $7.5 billion Tinaco-Anaco line in central Venezuela, which is being built by China’s CREC.


Source: www.cubastandard.com/2011/03/31/slow-rail-rehab-project-with-cuban-parti...