Roundup: Mendoza road tender, Río Negro budget, Santa Fe drought

Mendoza tender

The roads authority of Argentina’s Mendoza province launched an 18.8bn-peso (US$18.6mn) tender to repave an 85km section of provincial route No. 153 between the town of Las Catitas and the Ñacuñan natural reserve.

The contract is part of a 39.4bn-peso effort to rehabilitate 179km of the east-south commercial and productive corridor, the local government said in a press release.

Bids will be opened on December 19 and documents are available in the tenders (licitaciones) section of the road authority’s website.

Tenders for two other sections have been launched previously. One involves 7.92bn pesos and covers a 34.2km stretch of provincial route No. 171 between Monte Comán and Real del Padre, and another 12.7bn pesos for 59.4km of provincial route No. 153 between Ñacuñan and Monte Comán. Bids for both are currently under evaluation.

Río Negro budget

The bill for the 2025 provincial budget includes 120bn pesos for direct investments, 101bn pesos of which are for construction.

This year, the provincial government expects 29bn pesos to be invested in the construction category.

The bill was submitted to the local legislature on Friday and includes 91bn pesos for the roadworks office, 65bn pesos of which coming from external and internal loans.

Santa Fe drought relief

Small and medium-sized farmers in Santa Fe who are affected by droughts will have access to two new credit lines to finance short-term operations and long-term infrastructure efforts to better face water scarcity.

“The important thing is that we have to try to anticipate these kinds of events in these departments and not wait for extreme situations or protests in which we end up running behind,” productive development minister Gustavo Puccini was quoted as saying in a press release.

Producers can individually access up to 2.7mn pesos in loans.

An agricultural emergency was declared on September 1 in Santa Fe’s 9 de Julio, Vera, General Obligado and San Cristóbal departments due to an intense drought and lower water levels at local dams, estuaries and wetlands.

The measure provides tax relief for affected farmers and is set to expire on February 28.