Advances in Civil Infrastructure Works.

The country will start on October 18, as reported daily in the country, reviving a train that provides service freight product in containers. This is the railway corridor between Santa Marta and La Dorada. Hold Trade Atlantic will be the company that will roll the rail by almost 800 kilometers of railway line, which was rebuilt mainly in the section La Dorada to Chiriguaná. Load initiates route from Santa Marta and is carried to the station of La Dorada, where there will be an exercise of transport of containers to the tractor-trailers that will lead to Bogota and Medellin .Other stay in La Dorada. Then the train back to Santa Marta with other products.

This operation involved the National Infrastructure Agency (ANI), in charge of the line between La Dorada and Chiriguaná, together with the Temporary Central Railway Union, who rebuilt the road; and on the other hand, the company Ferrocarriles Del Norte S.A. Colombia (Fenoco) as dealer Chiriguaná route to Santa Marta. The route between La Dorada and Santa Marta is about 800 kilometers: 554.3 km between La Dorada and Chiriguaná, and the remaining 245 km are Chiriguaná to Santa Marta. To move the containers which carry grain, fertilizer, cars, and other products, has a strategic support is the Sociedad Portuaria de Santa Marta. There the containers will be loaded and taken to La Dorada, where there will be a transfer center for cargo dispatch. On the return of La Dorada to Santa Marta will move coffee and other export products. The possibility of the use of the nearly 800 km of railway between La Dorada and Santa Marta is due to the reconstruction of way, that made the UT Railway Central on the line La Dorada-Chiriguaná. Also, Fenoco which to transport coal, it has made major investments to maintain and increase the capacity of the 245 km route between Chiriguaná and Santa Marta. It also has built and in operation 153.3 km of the second line, which gives facilities for the new operation. In a first phase of operation, the country will have the additional transport of 1 million tons of cargo annually through the company Holdtrade Atlantic in charge of the railway, which will reduce the costs of transporting products previously done in tractor-trailers as well as vehicular decongestion. In a second stage, which would be by 2018, increase to 1,500,000 tons. That company arrived in the country four years ago, to study the possibilities of starting rail operations in Colombia and was enabled since 2014 by the Ministry of Transport to provide this service rail transport. Other advances in infrastructure have to do with fourth generation pathways that continue in the process of financial close and start work. It is, according to the newspapers of the country, the case of the construction of the dual carriageway Rumichaca to Pasto, via fourth generation (4G) which will begin on October 27. This project will cost 1.8 billion pesos and boost trade with Ecuador, includes a second carriageway of 74 km between Ipiales and Pasto, improvement of 80 km, 2.4 km of tunnels and 3.6 km of bridges. Additional works executed in Nariño are Circunvalar Galeras has built 6 of the 16 km programmed and will improve the connection with neighboring municipalities Pasto, in volcano region, and promote tourism in the region. Also the construction of the dual carriageway with three lanes in each direction between Rumichaca and Ipiales south variant shows an increase of 45 percent in the works. In addition, the modernization of Pasto airport is about 60 percent, and already completed dredging the access channel to the port of Tumaco.

It was also announced by the National Infrastructure Agency (ANI) that the highway of the second wave of program pathways fourth generation (roads 4G) Santana-Mocoa-Neiva, in charge of the Allied Award for SAS Progress, started this week the construction phase. In recent days the financial closure of the project was approved by 1.35 billion pesos, with funding commitments issued by Bancolombia, the National Development Finance (FDN), Davivienda and the International Finance Corporation (IFC). The financial close and start construction of the first and second wave of roads 4G, will be completed, according to official sources, before march 2017 and the third wave (which are two projects) in the second quarter next year. The full implementation of the works since 2017 for five or six years will contribute to economic growth of 0.5% to 1% on GDP and employment generation equivalent to a drop in the unemployment rate of about 1 %. ------------------- Today, as global markets, stock markets are mixed in Europe and USA futures lower due at lower than expected corporate results. Oil rose yesterday (WTI) at US 51.35 by Russian statements on adherence to OPEC agreement on the limitation of oil, it is in the pre-opening with downward trend -0.16%.

In Colombia, the peso opened the day at 2,882 per dollar with appreciation against the TRM 2,914 today.