Southern Cone roundup: Chile reservoir studies, Uruguay campaign pledge and Entre Ríos infra plan

Zapallar reservoir 

The waterworks office of Chile’s public works ministry (MOP) launched a tender to carry out studies for the upcoming US$215mn Zapallar reservoir concession.

The 92.1mn peso (US$98,194) contract is for an economic assessment of the current, optimized and future scenarios for the dam, which will be later incorporated into the project’s agroeconomic evaluation. 

It includes surveying local irrigation infrastructure and determining the costs of updating irrigation systems in certain scenarios, as well as the overall situation of the local agricultural sector, documents show.

Technical proposals will be opened on May 16 and bids on May 20. Documents can be seen here (in Spanish).

The Zapallar reservoir, which is expected to be put out to tender this year, entails a dam with capacity for 80Mm3 that will mainly benefit the municipalities of San Ignacio and El Carmen in Ñuble region.

Uruguay candidate's rail plans

Presidential candidate Álvaro Delgado pledged to develop Uruguay’s passenger rail network if elected later this year.

As part of his official platform released on Thursday, Delgado, who served as secretary of the presidency until March, proposes building the US$500mn Tren-Tram light rail link between Montevideo and Canelones, expanding the existing rail network to the cities of Salto, Rivera and Río Blanco, and using the infrastructure of the Central railway for passenger services in Montevideo.

“We have to keep advancing over the next five years to have the infrastructure of a developed country,” Agustín Iturralde, economic coordinator for Delgado’s campaign, said during the program’s presentation.

Delgado is leading the polls for the National Party primaries that will be held on June 30. The presidential election will take place on October 27.

Entre Ríos infra

Some 30% of public works projects in Argentina’s Entre Ríos province that were halted by lack of federal funding should be able to resume starting this month under a plan pushed by the local government.

The plan would benefit 29 projects and entail total investment of 14bn pesos (US$15.9mn) this year.

“We aren’t talking about new works, but finishing what had already started,” provincial planning minister Darío Scheinder told local news agency APF Digital.

He added that 70% of public works in the province originally counted with federal funding that is no longer available thanks to President Javier Milei’s austerity policies.