Colombia's Autopistas de la Montaña highway project may need additional public funding in light of its projected cost, Luis Fernando Alarcón, CEO of state power company ISA, said during the company's third quarter results conference call.
"The internal generation of funds such as toll collections is not enough to cover the cost," Alarcón said, adding that additional public resources from national and local governments will be required, as well as the design of a development plan that prioritizes investments.
ISA recently completed preliminary studies on the highway project, which consider a total investment of up to 15.6tn pesos (US$8.26bn).
The Autopistas de la Montaña project is 760km in length and will include 15 tunnels measuring over 1km, totaling about 52km, and 116 tunnels less than 1km in length, reaching up to 37km in total. The project also includes 703 bridges adding up to 64km.
The construction of tunnels and bridges accounts for almost 50% of capex, meaning that together with another 22% for slope stabilization, 72% of the project's total costs are associated with construction and earthworks, Alarcón said.
The project involves the construction of two highways connecting Colombia's Atlantic coast with the interior.
National concessions institute Inco recently awarded a 1.5bn-peso consultancy to oversee the highway concession to Consorcio Grupo la Montaña, comprised of Incgroup, Typsa and Bonus Banca Inversión.
The group will analyze ISA's studies over the next few months, after which the national and local government will determine the basic scope of the project, the work plan, the investment and the state resources available for its execution.
BNAmericas.
