Brazil's national ground transport agency ANTT and Galvão Engenharia have signed the concession of federal highway BR-153/TO/GO running through the states of Tocantins.

The firm, which offered to charge tolls of R$4,979 per 100km, 45.99% less than the maximum toll proposed by the government, was selected as the preferred bidder in early July.

The road stretch is 624.8 km long and passes through 23 municipalities. The segment begins at the junction with the BR - 060 in Annapolis (Goiás) and ends at the junction with the TO- 070 highway in Aliança do Tocantins. The system will feature nine toll plazas.

The concession contract will have a period of 30 years. The total project cost during the life of the concession contract is estimated at R4.31 billion (US$1.92 billion). The contract involves maintenance, operation, implementation of improvements and capacity expansion of the road segment.

The federal highway will go through 23 municipalities: Anápolis, Campinorte, Ceres, Estrela do Norte, Hidrolina, Jaraguá, Mara Rosa, Nova Glória, Pirenópolis, Porangatu, Rialma, Rianápolis, Santa Tereza de Goiás, São Francisco de Goiás, São Luiz do Norte e Uruaçu, em Goiás; e Aliança do Tocantins, Alvorada, Cariri do Tocantins, Dueré, Figueirópolis, Gurupi and Talismã, in the state of Tocantins.

This summer, Brazil national development bank (BNDES) has supported the road sector at the federal level. In early August we reported that the bank approved two bridge loans valued at a total of R$1.41 billion (US$623 million) for federal highway concession projects:

• R$762 million (US$334 million) loan to Concessionária Rota do Oeste S.A., a subsidiary of Odebrecht for the BR-163/MT road concession;
• R$646.6 million (US$289 million) loan to Concessionária Rodovia Sul-Matogrossense, a subsidiary of the Brazilian group CCR for the BR-163/MS highway.

In spite of these three examples we are seeing higher activity at the state level lately. In mid June we reported that the state of Paraná in Brazil had awarded the state highway PR-323 PPP project to the consortium Consórcio Rota 323, led by Odebrecht Transport Participações S.A. and also formed by Tucuman Engenharia, Goetze Lobato Engenharia and América Empreendimento.

Additionally, in late June, we announced that Brazil's São Paulo state, through the state transportation agency of São Paulo (ARTESP), had announced five teams have bid for the Rodovia dos Tamoios highway PPP project.  The Government of Minas Gerais launched on June 25th the tender process for the Rodoanel Norte highway public private partnership (PPP).