The councilors who attended the session of the Metropolitan Council unanimously approved the recommendation of the Private Investment Promotion Management which was to declare the affectation to the public interest, confirm the unilateral termination of the contract and continue the procedure as stipulated in the same contract that will be terminated.
The Rutas de Lima Concessionaire, made up of Brookfield (57%), Odebrecht (now Novonor with 25%) and Sigma (18%), is responsible for the Vías Nuevas de Lima project through the concession granted by the Metropolitan Municipality of Lima.
Also read: MML Council approves termination of the concession contract with Rutas de Lima
The concession includes the operation and maintenance of 31.5 km of the Panamericana Norte, passing the Habich Bridge to before the Ancón Interchange and 54.1 km of the Panamericana Sur, passing the Javier Prado Clover to the Pucusana Bridge.
There is also a contractual commitment that Rutas de Lima extends the Ramiro Prialé highway by 19 km to the Los Angeles Bridge. Currently this road has 10 km., reaching the Las Torres Bridge. The expansion works are paralyzed.
Rutas de Lima is a 100% private concession, that is, it does not require a public budget, with an investment commitment of S/2,000 million in the construction of the proposed works, in addition to carrying out the operation and maintenance of the roads for 30 years.
It currently has three toll collection points: Villa southbound, Punta Negra northbound, both on the Panamericana Sur highway; as well as the Chillón toll on the Panamericana Norte. The cost for light vehicles is S/ 6.50.
Arguments for terminating the contract
For the Municipality of Lima, there are six issues for which the Rutas de Lima concession affected the public interest. The first are the high toll rateswhich have generated claims from the residents of Puente Piedra and Lurín, reported by their local governments, as well as social organizations, Indecopi and the Ombudsman.
A second argument is that there is a impact on families, since the Chillon toll represents between 9% and 15% of their monthly income. To this is added, as a third topic, the contractual deficiencies due to the limitations for the construction of complementary roads, because it would imply compensating the concessionaire.
The fourth theme is decrease in speed on the Panamericana Norte, where the municipality indicates that the transit time went from 20km/h to 17km/h. A fifth point of affectation of public interest for the Lima commune is that there is a poor service by Rutas de Limasince there are 14,759 observations regarding the 2020-2022 service, in case of reiteration without implying termination of the contract.
Finally, the sixth argument is that there was economic modifications to the contract with a signed addendum and 31 private minutes, failing to comply with the procedure of having the opinion of the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF) and the Comptroller’s Office, to the detriment of the Municipality of Lima.
To all this is added that, for the Municipality of Lima, the economic benefit that the concessionaire has, with respect to the amount invested, has a strong margin of difference. He points out that while Rutas de Lima has had income of US$1,245 million in the first 10 years of the concession, it has only invested US$259 million.
Missing Themes
During the debate of the Municipal Council, led by the mayor of Lima, Rafael López Aliaga, the interventions focused on the fact that the decision to terminate the contract had to be made to clean up the corruption in the capital city.
Almost all the interventions of the councillors, including the mayor himself, They stressed that the Rutas de Lima contract was the product of corruption and consequently, resolving it was an act of justice, both for the municipality and for the population.
Nevertheless, The Municipality of Lima itself, under the management of Jorge Muñoz, tried to resolve this same contract with the same argument that it was the product of corruption, but in two international arbitrations, as mandated by the concession contract.. The awards of both arbitrations were in favor of Rutas de Lima, for which reason its contract might not be annulled.
Both the councilors, as well as the officials in charge of evaluating the arguments for the termination of the contract, did not mention what the future of the concessioned roads or tolls will be.
It was not specified if the tolls currently operated by Rutas de Lima will pass into the hands of the Municipality of Lima, which will have to determine a new rate or if they will be eliminated entirely.
Nor were the costs of maintaining the roads specified.nor what will be the future of the works of the expansion of the Ramiro Prialé highway, if it will be assumed as a public work by the Municipality of Lima or if it will be decided to concession it to a new company.
Rutas de Lima opposes
The still concessionaire, Rutas de Lima rejected the decision of the Municipality of Lima to terminate the concession contract that they have had since 2013, considering that it is an arbitrary act.
“If the termination proceeds, the company reserves the right to initiate the actions it deems appropriate in light of this illegitimate decision,” he said in a statement.
According to the company, the unilateral termination of the contract would mean that the Municipality of Lima is obliged to assume the immediate payment of the amounts established in the concession contract, both in favor of the concessionaire and financial entities, among others.
“This is without prejudice to the fact that both the Municipality of Lima and the Peruvian State would be exposed to new international claims that would lead to the payment of greater compensation, which today the Municipality of Lima already owes,” he specified.
