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.
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