The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) announced the approval of a package of loans for $750 million for the expansion of the Lima metro. The project will include the construction of 35 kilometers of tunnels under the metropolitan area of the Peruvian capital.
In 2020, when all its phases are in operation, the underground transport system will allow passengers to cross the city from east to west in 45 minutes, as opposed to the more than two hours the trip currently takes by car. It will also significantly reduce the costs of transportation, the number of traffic accidents and emissions of greenhouse gases in the metropolitan area.
Approval of the IDB financing coincided with the gathering in Lima of COP 20, the 20th Conference of the Parties on Climate Change.
“Besides being the largest project undertaken by a public-private partnership in the history of Peru, the expansion of the Metro will raise Lima's public transportation to the level required by a modern metropolis,” said Hans Schulz, interim IDB Vice President for the Private Sector and Non-Sovereign Guaranteed Operations.
The six-year project calls for the construction of 35 stations that will allow 660,000 passengers to use the new public transportation networks each day.
The total cost of the project is set at over $5.8 billion, which will be financed through a 35-year public-private partnership between the concessionaire, Metro de Lima Línea 2 S.A., and the Ministry of Transportation and Communications.
Participating in the Metro de Lima Línea 2 consortium are the Iridium/ACS Group of Spain; FCC Group of Spain; Salini Impregilo of Italy; Ansaldo STS of Italy; Ansaldo Breda of Italy; and COSAPI of Peru. The Consortium includes investors with a long track record of success in the design, construction and operation of world-class metro lines.
The partnership will operate under an innovative model based on income from the investments and certificates of progress to be issued by the Ministry of Transportation and Communication. Once the system begins operating, the concessionaire will be paid out of the tariffs for services rendered.
The financial package for the project will be made up of a $300 million loan to the Ministry of Transportation and Communications and non-sovereign guaranteed loans to Metro de Lima Línea 2 of up to $400 million and $50 million, respectively, from the Bank´s Ordinary Capital and the China Co-financing Fund for Latin America and the Caribbean, administered by the IDB.