Pará to tender executive project this month for US$273mn Belém BRT

Northern Brazil's Pará state government will launch a tender by month-end to develop an executive project for a bus rapid transit (BRT) system in state capital Belém, the director of the city's transport management center, César Meira, told BNamericas. "The selected contractor will develop a plan that includes extending Papa João Paulo II avenue in the Marco neighborhood to the Mário Covas highway in Coqueiro, which will make way for the BRT along Almirante Barros avenue," Meria said. A tender to build the BRT is scheduled for 2013, with construction starting in January 2014. The system should be up and running by end-2015. Civil works are budgeted at 487mn reais (US$273mn), of which the Japan International Cooperation Agency ( JICA) will provide 16.4bn yen (US$198mn) in financing, according to the executive. Another 120mn reais will be spent to purchase a fleet of buses and build maintenance workshops. Each bus will have capacity to hold 180 passengers.