Dominican Rep lacks funds for Santo Domingo metropolitan train, says former president

The Dominican Republic lacks the funds to build the Santo Domingo metropolitan train, said former president Hipólito Mejía.

“There’s no money for that,” he told reporters on Saturday, according to news outlet N. Mejía was president from 2000 to 2004.

The tender to build the project was abruptly cancelled on November 5 by the government trust for the development of mass transport, Fitram. 

The 32km line is designed to connect the Juan Pablo Duarte metro station to Las Américas international airport. Almost 22km of the line will be built at ground level while the rest will reportedly be overhead. Most of the route will run along Ecológica avenue and construction is expected to last about three years.  

According to the cancellation order signed by the financial director of Fitram, Ernestina Cornelio, and published on the trust's procurement site, the funds to build the rail project would have been sourced via a bill for fiscal modernization. 

The bill planned to raise 122.4bn pesos (approximately US$2bn) through tax hikes. 

“The government foresaw the [bill’s] intervention in the transport sector through the construction of important infrastructure works, especially related to mass transport, which included the Santo Domingo metropolitan train,” the document states, adding that the bill was sent to congress in October. 

However, the bill did not advance and President Luis Abinader withdrew it at the end of last month due to the lack of social support.  

“For reasons that could not be predicted, the bill was withdrawn, which supposes the reassessment of the financial scheme for the execution of the works,” the order adds.

On November 8, Fitram published a release saying the bidding process was cancelled “with the aim of carrying out the project through a PPP” as was originally planned, and added that the government will hold a roadshow to seek investors.

On November 8, the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (Cabei) said it was willing to fund the project.

"Our first stage will be to grant the technical cooperation resources needed for the realization of the complementary studies and other needs required to confirm the feasibility of the project. And the second stage would include the structuring and identification of financial sources and models to develop the line," the development bank said on social media. 

The plan was to tender the first stage in July last year and start construction by February this year.