Colombia's Ministry of Transport has declared the concession to upgrade, operate and maintain the Santana-Mocoa-Neiva highway corridor breached, initiating the cancellation process.

In December, the Ministry imposed fines of COP24 billion (US$7.7 million) on the concessionaire due to the significant delays to construction. Works were supposed to be 54% complete by 31 December 2018, but were only 5.2% complete as of that date.

The concessionaire, owned by Carlos Alberto Solarte Solarte S.A.S (62.2%), CASS Constructores S.A.S (30.7%) and Latinoamericana de Construcciones-Latinco S.A. (7%), has since presented a new execution schedule for the remaining construction works.

However, to avoid cancellation/expiration, the shareholders need to engage a new partner to ensure adequate financial resources to complete the works contracted to the concessionaire. It is possible that the concession may be ceded to another investor. Eiffage has reportedly approached Solarte already with an offer to take over its participation in the project.

Unless a financial agreement is reached, the cancellation process will proceed, currently scheduled to be completed by July 2019.