Peru studying Callao tram, Lima-Ica railway

The Peruvian government is studying a project to build local train and tram lines, part of a drive to improve mass transit between the capital and neighboring ports.

A tram project in Callao, the country's largest port city, has been proposed as a co-financed private initiative known as IPC, transport and communications minister José Gallardo said.

"The project is being evaluated and we have given it priority," Gallardo told state television TV Perú.

The transport ministry is also studying a 180km/h southern coastal railway line linking Lima-Pisco-Ica, Gallardo said. Pisco features Minsur's tin smelter, Aceros Arequipa's steelworks and the Camisea gas separation plant, while Ica is home to the country's main agro-industrial hub.

Peru, which has rail networks totaling 1,829km, has lined up another eight projects totaling 3,525km, according to the ministry. These include Peru's stretch of the Peru-Brazil transcontinental railway, the US$2bn trans-Andean tunnel, the Puno, Lima-Chincha and Huancayo-Huancavelica lines and mining railroad projects in Cajamarca and Apurímac regions.

The government plans to sign eight contract addenda in a bid to eliminate bureaucratic obstacles to 3bn soles (US$940mn) in infrastructure investment, Gallardo said. The government has pushed through 11 contract addenda for 19bn soles in investment projects over the past year, according to the ministry.

President Ollanta Humala, who has awarded US$18bn in public-private partnership infrastructure concessions since 2011, is scheduled to step down in July 2016. The government plans to invest 8.68bn soles this year in transport infrastructure.

PIURA HOSPITAL

In other infrastructure news, the government plans to award a contract to carry out a feasibility study for a 600mn-sol hospital in Piura region.

Construction is scheduled to start on a 5ha site in the northern coastal city of Piura in the second half of 2016, said Elena Cruzado, head of investment projects at state health service Essalud. Piura's regional government will build access roads, while municipal water company EPS Grau will handle water and sewerage services and state power company Electronoroeste will provide electricity connections, Cruzado told state news agency Andina.