Work has begun on the first metro line in Salvador, Brazil. With an estimated 3m city population, a rapid transit line has been a must for years.
The first line, from Lapa to Piraja, will be 11.9km long, of which just 1.4km will be in tunnels.
The cost will be around US$307M, $150M coming from the World Bank, US$40m from Brazil’s federal government, US$67M from the state of Bahia and Salvador, and US$50m from private enterprise.
The metro, due to open in 2003, is being built by a consortium of Siemens, Germany, and Brazilian firms Camargo Correa and Andrade Gutierrez.
In another development, state government-owned Metro Fortaleza (Metrofor) is replacing over-crowded suburban trains with a new metro. The South Line, busiest of the two suburban lines, is being converted to a double-track, meter-gauge metro. A new 4km tunnel will divert the South Line under the city center. The metro is scheduled to open in mid-2002.
It is being built by a consortium of Adtranz, Alstom, Siemens, and a number of Brazilian companies. The project will cost US$326M, of which US$268M will be a loan from Japan’s Eximbank.
