NewsWhore
09-14-2010, 03:10 PM
The second line of the metro is scheduled for completion in 2012, according to Leonel Carrasco, deputy director of the Transport Reorganization Office, better known as the metro office. But lack of funding may push the opening date beyond the end of this second consecutive term of President Leonel Fernandez.
Carrasco admits the government is allocating RD$270-RD$200 million a month for the metro, while the construction requires another RD$500 million a month to maintain an adequate pace of construction. He confirmed that the government is in arrears with the builders and said that contractors have been paid RD$1.2 billion, but another RD$2.4 billion is still pending.
He said that 35-40% of the civil works for the second line have been completed, from Los Alcarrizos to Av. Francisco del Rosario Sanchez, in a first phase, and then on to San Luis in the second phase, as reported in El Dia.
News reports have observed a reduction in the pace of metro construction that has involved excavations across large sections of Santo Domingo, exacerbating the already serious traffic problems.
Former Central Bank governor Bernardo Vega attributed the metro's financial woes to a lack of planning of the mega public work. He said that the government chose to go ahead with the project even without obtaining financing. He said that the construction has now added to the government's financial deficit.
As reported in Hoy, Vega said: "That project was not in the government plan, it was never discussed in the PLD, and was not an electoral campaign pledge. Some foreigners who wanted to make commissions for selling the trains to the metro came and convinced Diandino Pena that it was a good project, and Diandino Pena convinced the President," said Vega. He said that was how the construction of the metro began and the tenders for the trains were issued before having secured any financing.
He said there was a time when public opinion was turning President Fernandez against the project, but then Pena convinced him to go ahead with the metro.
"The issue was to appoint Diandino Pena as minister of public works and forget the metro, but when he did not appoint him, he had to do something because he is very close to the President, and then he was given that project," said the economist.
He said that Fernandez announced the construction of the metro in the middle of the international financial crisis when it was evident that the first line of the metro was operating with losses.
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#1)
Carrasco admits the government is allocating RD$270-RD$200 million a month for the metro, while the construction requires another RD$500 million a month to maintain an adequate pace of construction. He confirmed that the government is in arrears with the builders and said that contractors have been paid RD$1.2 billion, but another RD$2.4 billion is still pending.
He said that 35-40% of the civil works for the second line have been completed, from Los Alcarrizos to Av. Francisco del Rosario Sanchez, in a first phase, and then on to San Luis in the second phase, as reported in El Dia.
News reports have observed a reduction in the pace of metro construction that has involved excavations across large sections of Santo Domingo, exacerbating the already serious traffic problems.
Former Central Bank governor Bernardo Vega attributed the metro's financial woes to a lack of planning of the mega public work. He said that the government chose to go ahead with the project even without obtaining financing. He said that the construction has now added to the government's financial deficit.
As reported in Hoy, Vega said: "That project was not in the government plan, it was never discussed in the PLD, and was not an electoral campaign pledge. Some foreigners who wanted to make commissions for selling the trains to the metro came and convinced Diandino Pena that it was a good project, and Diandino Pena convinced the President," said Vega. He said that was how the construction of the metro began and the tenders for the trains were issued before having secured any financing.
He said there was a time when public opinion was turning President Fernandez against the project, but then Pena convinced him to go ahead with the metro.
"The issue was to appoint Diandino Pena as minister of public works and forget the metro, but when he did not appoint him, he had to do something because he is very close to the President, and then he was given that project," said the economist.
He said that Fernandez announced the construction of the metro in the middle of the international financial crisis when it was evident that the first line of the metro was operating with losses.
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#1)