Weekly Report - 04 October 2012 (WR-12-39)

COLOMBIA/VENEZUELA| Work begun on major international highway. On 27 September Colombia’s national infrastructure agency (ANI) announced that construction of the 1,425km ‘Transversal de las Américas’ highway across northern Colombia was under way. The new road will improve transport links with neighbouring Venezuela. ANI said that the US$889m seven-year project involves the construction of new road tracts. It also involves widening and renovating existing roads across seven Colombian departments which will connect the northwest department of Chocó, on the border with Panama, with the north-eastern department of César, on the border with Venezuela. The new highway is to be built and later operated by the Vías de las Américas, a consortium of the local construction and engineering firms. Colombia’s national roads institute (Invías), a dependency of the national executive, highlights that the Transversal de las Américas project will not only benefit local communities in the southern Bolívar and middle Magdalena regions by connecting them to the rest of the country but the country as a whole. Invías claims it will boost competitivity and tourism as well as economic and social development in the Atlantic Coast.

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