Dilma Rousseff, the current President of Brazil, has announced plans to launch a R$198.4 billion (US$63.5 billion) infrastructure concessions program.

The plan aims to upgrade and operate Brazilian roads, railways, airports and ports. This new plan expects to offer investors better terms than the previous concession plan.

It is expected that interested bidder in this new round of concessions will partially fund infrastructure projects with private finance raised through infrastructure bonds. According to Rousseff, investors will have access to low cost financing. 

The new concession round will include, among others:

• airports in the cities of Porto Alegre, Fortaleza, Salvador, Florianopolis and others
• 4,371 kilometers of highways
• expansion of existing freight railways and the development of new ones on a free access model
• 29 state-owned port terminals in Santos, the state of Para, Paranagua, Itaqui and others

The R$198.4 billion (US$63.5 billion) infrastructure concessions program is expected to be composed by R$66.1 billion (US$21.1 billion) in investments in highways, R$86.4 billion (US$27.6 billion) in railways, R$37.4 billion (US$11,9 billion) in ports and R$8.5 billion (US$2.7 billion) in airports.

BNDES will provide low-cost financing of up to 70% of project costs for railways if private financing is raised and 40% of project costs for road concessions if the private partner raises 10% by selling infrastructure bonds.