MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Brazilian media warns that upgrading or airports is way behind schedule
Porto Alegre and Curitiba in the south are some of the worst cases Delays are plaguing work at airports in seven of the 12 Brazilian cities that will host the World Cup nine months from now, the daily O Globo reported Sunday. Citing a survey by Infraero, the federal airports agency, the paper said the worst delay was in the southern city of Porto Alegre, where work on expanding terminal at a cost of 69 million dollars has not even begun.
Work on the two terminals at Rio's Galeao airport, at a cost estimated at 137 million, is supposed to be completed by next April but is running behind schedule, it added.
In the southern city of Curitiba, only 6.19% of the airport upgrade has been completed while the percentage in the northeastern city of Salvador, capital of Bahia state, reached 20.2% and 23.09% in Cuiaba, capital of the central state of Mato Grosso.
A similar situation is reported at the airports of the northeastern city of Fortaleza and the southern city of Belo Horizonte.
By contrast, things are better at privatized airports not run by Infraero, including Sao Paulo's Guarulhos airport, where 60% of the work has been completed. In Brasilia the percentage is 50% and at Natal's new airport which is 54% completed, it noted.
The daily quoted Brazil's Civil Aviation Minister Wellington Moreira Franco as saying Infraero's problems were linked to the poor quality of projects presented by bidding companies. An auction to privatize Rio's Galeao and Belo Horizonte's Confins airports is to be held at the end of October, officials have said.
In February 2012, 20-year concessions were granted to manage three airports: two in Sao Paulo and one in Brasilia, breaking Infraero's monopoly.
Brazil with 200 million people is modernizing its aging and congested airports in preparation for handling tens of thousands of tourists expected for the coming World Cup and the 2016 Rio Olympics.
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Read all commentsI don't understand this. According to the FACTS, there was a general con-job. On 3 June 2003, the South American Football Confederation CONMEBOL announced that Argentina, Brazil, and Colombia wanted to host the 2014 World Cup finals. By 17 March 2004, the CONMEBOL associations had voted unanimously to adopt Brazil as their sole candidate. Brazil formally declared its candidacy in December 2006 and Colombia followed a few days later. The Argentina bid never materialised. On 11 April 2007, Colombia officially withdrew its bid. With this development, Brazil became the only official candidate to host the 2014 event. Brazil won the right to host the event on 30 October 2007 as the only country to enter the bidding process. So, Brazil had more than FOUR years to get things sorted out. And has failed. So take the competition away from it. Ask what countries can host the competition NOW. Then move it. And, in future, refuse to accept bids from countries that don't actually have the necessary resources. No more “It'll be ready on time.”
Sep 23rd, 2013 - 06:04 pm 0Cool. South America may have its own FIFA!
Sep 23rd, 2013 - 06:12 pm 0These types of events should never go to 3rd world countries.
Sep 23rd, 2013 - 06:53 pm 0They are 3rd world for a reason, usually it's laziness and corruption.
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