Due to serious breaches of contractual obligations, the National Infrastructure Agency (ANI) in Colombia has terminated the concession contract for the Pacific Railway PPP project with the concessionaire Ferrocarril del Pacífico SAS.

According to the ruling issued by the ANI, the Pacific Railroad Concessionaire SAS neglected from April 7, 2017 the contractual obligations regarding the maintenance and conservation activities of the railway corridor, equipment maintenance and operation and exploitation of the rail network, affecting seriously and directly the execution of the contract.

Likewise, in another process that was carried out against the concession, the breach of the obligations associated with the maintenance and conservation of the infrastructure that caused the fall of the bridge over the El Bolo river located in the municipality of Palmira was confirmed and as a consequence, damages were imposed of approximately COP 2400 billion (USD 626 million).

In total concesionaire Ferrocarril del Pacífico SAS must pay more than COP 100,000 billion (USD 26 billion) to the State for damages derived from the breaches.

Currently, the railway is in very poor condition, as reported by the audit company Consorcio Concesión Férreo, encountering landslides in some sectors, a general deterioration of the road and no commercial operation, affecting competitiveness, cargo mobilization from and towards the port of Buenaventura and the connectivity of trade between Buenaventura and the center of the country.

The concession contract for the project was signed on December 18, 1998 and began execution on March 14, 2000, with the aim of granting in concession the operation, exploitation, conservation and maintenance of the Buenaventura - Zaragoza section and the branch line. Zarzal - La Tebaida.

This railway network has a length of 498 km divided into two sections: the first 380 km that runs from Buenaventura to Zaragoza, in charge of the Ferrocarril del Pacífico SAS concession, and which had its expected completion date for the year 2030, will start the process of reversal and settlement of the contract. In parallel, the different alternatives will be studied to make the project of this railway corridor for Valle del Cauca a reality.

The second 118 km section that goes from Zaragoza to La Felisa, is in charge of Sociedad Tren de Occidente SA-TDO and remains active.