Metromara to receive US$84mn for Line 1

Venezuela's government has approved US$84mn to continue phase I works for line 1 of the Maracaibo Metro (Metromara), Maracaibo daily Panorama reported. Phase I began in March and will be completed in 2006, a Metromara spokesperson told BNamericas. The 12.3km line 1 is being developed in two stages and is scheduled to take 30 months and US$353mn to develop. The 6km first stage will cost US$150mn. Works are being performed by German-Venezuelan consortium Precowayss. Of the disbursement to be made this year US$50mn will be provided from the social and economic development fund using extraordinary petroleum income and the other US$34mn will be channeled through the special debt law according to finance minister Tobías Nóbrega, according to the newspaper. "We will receive the US$84mn next week. We are completing the design phase and are entering the detailed system design phase," Siemens project engineer Dixon Moreno told BNamericas. The Precowayss consortium won the contract to perform the civil works, which began at the end of the second quarter. Line 1 will handle 40,000 passengers/h. Four lines will be built in total with work finishing in 2020.