One bid has been received for the Bicentennial Cableway project in Santiago, Chile, which entails the construction of a non-polluting air cable transportation system that will link the municipalities of Providencia and Huechuraba in just 13 minutes.

The bid was submitted by the Teleférico Bicentenario SpA consortium, which is comprised of Nueva Vía Consultores Ltda., Icafal Inversiones, Ciudad Empresarial and Doppelmayr. The consortium initially proposed the project.

The next step of this tender process, the opening of economic offers, is scheduled for January 12, 2018. The construction phase is expected to start by 2020 for a period of roughly 26 months (two years and two months).

The project, which will require an investment of CLF1,948,603 (US$ 80 million), will span 3,382m. The route of the cableway will begin at a station in the New Zealand Plaza, in the Providencia district, and will then move north through the Metropolitan Park, where a station will be located east of the Antilén pool. Finally, the last stop will be located on Av. Santa Clara, a few meters from Av. El Parque in the Ciudad Empresarial, in the Huechuraba district.

The system will have the capacity to transport six thousand people per hour and will have a total of 148 cabins, each available for 10 passengers and a transfer frequency of 12 seconds between each one. It is expected that the total displacement will last 13 minutes, significantly reducing the transfer times between the two areas, which currently average 40 minutes.

The fare for the cableway may be integrated into the public transport system of Santiago in the future. The value of the maximum base rate per direction is projected at around CLP650  (value estimate to 2017).

The project will be built, operated and maintained to the highest international standards of urban cable transport. To provide for possible power cuts, a back-up system will incorporated into the design that will allow that the cabins reach the nearest station and passengers to descend in the event of a power cut.

The Coordinator of Concessions of the Ministry of Public Works, Eduardo Abedrapo, commented:

"The bidding rules for this project were purchased by 22 companies, from countries such as Austria, France and Italy. Therefore, the interest generated by this initiative is good news for the concession system, since it is a proposal that proposes a non-polluting transportation alternative that will help decongest the capital. We hope that the works will conclude in 2022 and there you can start using this new system."