The future of Bahia and its economy is being created now and political and business leaders and public authorities need to come together to face the challenges that are posed and which, if not overcome, could cause the state to miss the train and watch ships.
The first of these challenges is the completion of the first section of the West-East Railway and Porto Sul. It is a challenge because both projects are paralyzed and Bamin, whose subsidiary Bahia Ferrovias has the concession for the construction and operation of Fiol 1 and Porto South, is going through a period of restructuring, recording a loss of R$30 million in 2023 and a high degree of debt, which could result in the entry of a new partner in the project.
The challenge in this case is to guarantee the speed of construction and operation of the two pieces of infrastructure to set up the West-East railway corridor, as delays could lead to the implementation of other railway routes that bypass the ports of Bahia.
Another challenge is the assembly of the Southeast-Northeast rail corridor, operated by Ferrovia Centro Atlântica. It appears that it has already been decided that VLI – Logística, controlled by Vale, will cease operating the Bahian section of the railway. It won’t be bad for Bahia to get rid of Vale, which abandoned the railway network and made little investment. But it is necessary to guarantee the operation in good conditions of the current FCA network until mid-2026, as planned, and demand substantial resources from Vale for Bahia, both in granting and in compensation, superior, in a first analysis, to more than R$ 10 billion so that, at the same time, the Southern Line, which connects Salvador to Corinto (MG), is rehabilitated and/or built. And then it will be necessary to discuss the issue of railway gauge so that Bahia can be integrated into the national corridors.
The current scenario establishes uncertainty in the assembly of the East-West Corridor, which foresees the integration of Fiol with Fico – Central-West Integration Railway, and uncertainty in the Southeast-Northeast corridor, as there is no idea of the future of the railway Salvador Corinth.
If Bahia wants to catch the train of the future, in addition to railways it will have to face the challenge of ports and highways. In the case of ports, investments are needed to provide them with the conditions to receive the giants of the seas, ships that carry anything from 12,500 TEUs to mastodons that carry 24,000 TEUs. For this, a minimum draft of 16 m is required. In the private sector, there have been advances and investments and Tecon/Salvador, for example, already has this draft and can receive such ships, but it is necessary to include the Port of Aratu and the entire port complex of Bahia de Todos os Santos.
In terms of highways, there is an urgent need to overcome the saturation of BR-324, not only by investing in and modernizing this, which is Salvador’s only connection with the south and southeast of the country, but also by creating a new road alternative, after all, the 5th largest city in Brazil does not it may only have a connection with the national road system.
