Under the premise of equity, the national government established the National Development Plan, which highlights equal access to opportunities for all Colombians. For this, infrastructure plays a key role on this route, closing ‘territorial and socioeconomic gaps that fragment the social fabric’.
In the document, in this matter, the main pillar is to strengthen intra-urban, urban-rural and sub-regional links, to generate this productive connectivity throughout the national territory.
“In the main urban agglomerations of the country there are no regional mass transportation systems. In addition, there is no specialized institutional framework for planning and management at the regional level, which allows for the generation of efficient intra-regional links (intra-urban, urban-rural and sub-regional). In infrastructure for mobility, 21% of the primary roads, 66% of the secondary roads and 97% of the tertiary roads are unpaved”, the Plan mentions.
This is how the central commitment of the Government for the four-year period will focus on intervening in the transport network in three parts: the improvement of fluvial port facilities; tertiary roads and local roads, and airfields.
Regarding highway projects, the goal is to impact tertiary roads (improvements and maintenance) increasing from 55,240 km to 88,240 km, that is, to intervene at least 33,000 kilometers in these four years.
To delimit which will be the works, a methodology will be established to identify the main requirements by municipality in order to prioritize emergencies.
«Road construction projects will be developed by signing solidarity agreements with community action organizations,» he remarks.
There the new construction option was born: Public-Popular Alliances (which will be defined by the Government, headed by the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit, among others), a new modality to carry out construction projects, such as infrastructure local production, tertiary roads, local roads, among others.
These types of projects will have the necessary resources to finance the works. For this, the cost of the drill bits will be estimated, a project profile will be developed, an analysis of sources will be made, and the existing regulations will be adjusted so that the financing is expedited, seeking the concurrence of sources.
Although details are lacking to know what this issue will consist of, the overtones that have been seen so far have aroused criticism, especially for the control and surveillance of public resources.
«This issue seems very attractive (from the popular economy), but the risk is that this budget reaches regional gamonales and not the communities,» said José Stalin Rojas, director of the Logistics and Mobility Observatory of the National University.
In addition, the expert points out that «a challenge in the popular economy is that the communities will not have enough governance -or a process of transparency- to guarantee that the budget reaches where it has to go.»
However, these works would open the door to develop an intermodal structure and transportation services with rail and river corridors, articulated with the road network, «guaranteeing the connection with seaports.»
Likewise, taking into account the country’s strategy, the Government expects to have Specialized Logistics Infrastructures (ILE) in the modal exchange nodes, which reduce transfer times.
On the other hand, the Plan promises to promote essential air services with a social and tourist vocation, the development of airport ILEs integrated with other modes of transport will be strengthened, to improve infrastructure connectivity and the facilitation of complementary cargo nationalization services. .
«The Social Air Transportation System – SITRAS will be created as an integral system (…) To strengthen the maintenance and adaptation of its airport infrastructure, implementing social air route services,» he says.
Finally, the Plan promises to increase the airport capacity of the terminals with the highest growth in the number of international tourists in the next ten years.
iron runners
The Plan proposes to reactivate the current railway corridors and build new complementary lines. In addition, regulate the operating conditions, level of service, surveillance and control and registration requirements with which the ILE must be developed.
«These infrastructures will be developed as efficient modal exchange centers that will promote the development of value-added logistics services in vulnerable areas.»
Finally, the Plan hopes to promote regional public transport systems and services with zero and low emissions, as part of its environmentally responsible commitment.
PAULA GALEANO BALAGUERA
BRIEFCASE
