Lula cuts the ribbon

President Lula came to Ilheus this past Friday, December 10, to sign the work order to start the construction of the first stretch of the east/west railway.  There was a ceremony at the Conventon Center, and the governor, the Minister of Transportation and the president of VALEC (the engineering firm that oversees government contracts in a public-private relationship that may be something like the IRS in the USA) were all in attendance, as well as the mayor of Ilheus, senators, deputies and mayors of the other regions that will be affected by the construction. The governor in his speech said " [it is] a moment of glory to concretize this project that has been in the works for 50 years. An important work because it will bring a lot of development to the east and for all the routes to Ilheus, to the new port."
Hopefully someone at this gathering discussed the highway from Ilheus to Itabuna.  One of the effects of the port/rail/airport activity, during and after construction, should be an increase in traffic between these two cities. The drive, 24 km or so, is beautiful. It is also painful, scary and sometimes fatal. I've been checking into the local blogs and found that people here are very impassioned about the road.
It was Lula's last visit to Ilheus as president. His term ends at midnight on December 31 and Dilma's begins.  Theoretically anyway, but really everybody is on vacation.  Dilma vacationed here right after the election, recuperating from the campaign at a five star hotel in Itacaré.  Hopefully Dilma will visit often, overseeing and initiating the various projects in the intermodal complex, and travel the road to Itabuna and say, this situation has got to be fixed.
I will fill you in on the story of the highway soon. For now, let's see if I can get some pictures up.  No. Aaarrrgghh.

Hub Bub

There is a huge project planned for the Cacau Coast. It involves a new port between Ilheus and Itacaré, an east-west railway linking the port to the north-south line at the juncture of in Tocantins , and a new international airport . The new transportation superfacility will be located in a still sleepy stretch of coast north of Ilheus at Ponta da Tulha. 

Work on the rail has begun, though there were noted "irregularities" with the financing that threatened to halt things, but the project goes on. The first stretch of the railway between Ilheus and Caetité, BA will be done by July of 2011 and is scheduled to be completed by December of 2012. The port and airport construction are set to move on parallel schedules , the idea being that all three be completed and ready to use together. The funds are reported to be in the 2011 budget.

 In January president elect Dilma Rouseff will take office. The project should be safe, Wagner, Dilma and Lula are all of the same party, and the project is prestigious. The port facility will have a public terminal for industrial and tourist use, and a private one as well to warehouse the materials arriving from the mines of Bahia Mineraçao in Caetité ( the end of the first leg of the railway, remember?) BAMIN as the company is known, was a joint Indian/Kazakstani multinational, but the Kazakstan partner has bought the Indian partner's share, and is now the sole owner.  BAMIN acquired the license to mine the iron deposits found in the semi arid interior of Bahia. Their plan is to begin production in 2013 once the rail and port facilities are completed, and to export 19.5 million tons of iron ore a year to China. 

There will be container warehouses for the agricultural products of Bahia as well, like cotton and soy. The area will become a major hub for the national import and export industry, and open up space for more tourism as well. That's the idea.

What will it mean for the Cacau Coast?  There will have to be a great influx of workers, from engineers and architects, to guys carrying sacks of cement.  Ilheus is already hopping with construction, mostly residential. As a beach town it already has seasonal population swells. Traffic can get crazy.  Will there be a real estate boom? Speculation is already beginning on some commercial sites, proclaiming the anticipated rise in property values in the area north of Ilheus. One friend who has a beach house in Tulha says that he, for one, will be relocating to the southern beaches, because he feels he will lose his peace and quiet.

And what about the environmental impact?  Built into the plans are green barriers planted with native species intended to limit the destruction of the ecosystems in the area. The area in question is 1700 hectares, or 17,000,000 m2, or roughly that many square yards. It will be the neighbor to an ecopreserve, Lagoa Encantada. The name says it all, Enchanted Lake.  Environmental groups are very concerned about the impact of the Intermodal Transportation Complex on the area.  A report by the group portosulnao(.org.br) reveals that the private partner in the project, Bahia Mineraçao will be heaping the raw iron material in a vast open air area, and that the runoff will seep into groundwater and pollute the air.  They predict that the impact of the rail terminal facilities alone will be devastating. Then there is the port. Ilheus already has a port it's second, really, and the effects on the shoreline up the coast from it have been dramatic. The sea has encroached upon the land, moved by the action of the ocean on the port facility, creating a new wave pattern, that has taken out a huge chunk of shoreline, complete with two streets worth of houses, and is now menacing the houses that line the beach today.  The new port is supposed to be built 3 km from the shoreline, an offshore affair, but the same kind of land damage to the shoreline nearby is predicted.

The Secretary of Industry, commerce and Minerals, James Correia says, " The South Port complex is an undertaking that opens a new axle of development in the country and is going to integrate the south of Bahia and the rest of Brazil on a new route of sustainable development, stimulating tourism, creating jobs, businesses and environmental activities for the whole region. The complex will principally guarantee local development by generating jobs and income, that in this first phase of implementation is estimated the creation of 10,000 jobs."

We will try to keep an eye on the project as it develops. Nothing has really happened yet, but the promise, or threat, depending on your point of view, is that soon the whole thing will burst into action with a flurry of mad multimodal construction. A lot of hubbub.

Friends, I have a problem. I am very hit and miss about manipulating images for this blog. If you have any suggestions for me about putting in pictures from google images or other sources, please leave me a note and let's chat about it. I got the monkeys okay, but couldn't get any of the things I wanted for this piece. Thanks, M