The Concessions Directorate of the Ministry of Public Works (MOP) published yesterday on its website the clarifying circular No. 6 of the bidding process for the concession of the Nueva La Punilla reservoir, dated April 2, which modified the deadline for receipt of technical offers, scheduled for next April 19, and extended it until December 20.
Likewise, the opening of economic offers, which was set for May 17, was postponed to January 21, 2025.
The above was decided, as announced by Minister Jéssica López during her visit to Chillán on April 3, to incorporate the necessary adjustments by virtue of the annulment – following a ruling by the Environmental Court on February 8, 2024 – of the qualification resolution environmental (RCA) of the Punilla-San Fabián transmission line, a key work to evacuate the energy generated in the future hydroelectric plant of the reservoir and which dates back to 2020.
It was on July 5 the last time that the MOP extended the deadlines, when it reported, through clarifying circular No. 5, that the deadline for receiving technical offers was moved from July 7, 2023 to April 19. of 2024.
As will be remembered, the project that will be built on the Ñuble River, in San Fabián and Coihueco, was subjected to a reevaluation by the government at the beginning of the Boric administration, with the objective of incorporating social and environmental aspects that, according to the Executive, were not considered in the bidding rules or in the RCA of the reservoir.
However, the social and union organizations of San Fabián that make up the Punilla Roundtable have reiterated that their demands have not been met by the MOP, in fact, at the beginning of March they requested “the immediate and indefinite suspension of the project tender.” .
The project consists of the development of a multipurpose reservoir with a capacity of 540 million m3, which will represent an investment of US$369 million, without considering the construction of the hydroelectric plant, a fundamental piece of the concession’s business model.
Criticism of irrigators
Fernando Rueda, president of the Ñuble River Surveillance Board, said that, “as we have already stated, we have some doubts regarding the way in which (the tender) is being conducted.” Among other points, we knew that the RCA of the transmission line was a sensitive point and for this reason, we raised it with the MOP on several occasions, but in the end it was not well considered.”
“Meanwhile,” Rueda continued, “we are still waiting for the fulfillment of some MOP commitments, such as meeting in an expanded instance with the irrigators so that the MOP can explain what they are working on and what the new deadlines are. Until now, in these two years, we have been the ones who have shown our face, explaining to our users something that is not easy to explain, while, in the MOP, the project’s principal, there is no statement and that, at all lights, it is an abnormal situation.”
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