Bucaramanga street repair requires US$52mn

An estimated 150,000mn pesos (some US$52mn) are required to repair 220km of streets in Bucaramanga, in Colombia's Santander department, to prevent continuing deterioration, El Tiempo reports. Although the city spent 12,000mn pesos (US$4.2mn today) on repair work between 2000 and 2003, the outlook is not encouraging, says the newspaper citing figures from the municipal infrastructure office, as the repair budget for next year is only 3,980mn pesos (US$1.4mn). Increasing traffic volume in the city of 552,000 is blamed for the poor state of the city's roads, which handle an estimated 120,000 vehicles and 20,000 buses every day.