IDEAL and FCC Americas, part of billionaire Carlos Slim's Carso Group, have declared their interest in taking over a majority stake in a project to improve transport on the Magdalena River in Colombia.

Navelena, the construction consortium that will carry out dredging on the river to increase cargo capacity, is formed by the Brazilian engineering Odebretch (87%) and Colombia's Valorcon (13%).

In May we reported that Odebrecht decided to leave its 87 percent stake in the consortium, which was the only bidder in the final stage of a tender process for the project. 

This announcement came after Marcelo Odebrecht resigned as President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the company. After 6 months in detention and given the developments in his court case, Marcelo Odebrecht, on 11 December, decided to formally resign from his post. This was part of a huge anti-corruption investigation, which stemmed from a bribery scheme at Brazilian state-run oil company Petroleo Brasileiro SA or Petrobras. 

The project, awarded the project to the Navelena consortium in 2014, would be developed through the public-private partnership (PPP) model on design, build, finance, operation and maintenance (DBFOM) basis. It is estimated that construction work would take about six years. The total project investment is estimated at COP2500 billion (US$828.9 million).

Upon completion of the project, the river would have a depth of seven feet and could transport convoys of up to 7,200 tons (the equivalent of about 234 trucks). The river basin has a 27.3Mha surface area, equivalent to 24% of the country's continental territory.