THE governor of the state São Paulo in Brazil, Mr Tarcísio de Freitas, has revoked the concession to operate and maintain the monorail Line 15/Silver in the city of São Paulo, awarded in 2019 to the ViaMobilidade consortium.

According to the São Paulo state government, the terms of the concession contract agreed in 2017-2019 are no longer appropriate in the current conditions. Revoking the concession has no financial implications for the state.

The state’s Secretariat for Investment Partnerships (SPI) has confirmed that ViaMobilidade was consulted over the revocation of its concession and made no objection.

São Paulo Metro is responsible for operating and maintaining Line 15/Silver, as well as future investment projects. The 15.3km monorail line runs from Vila Prudente to Jardim Colonial and serves 11 stations, carrying 130,000 passengers a day.

Earlier this month, the first of 18 new trains for Line 15 was presented to the São Paulo Metro in the city of Wuhu in China, where they are being built by CRRC Puzhen Alstom Transportation Systems (PATS), a joint venture of Alstom and CRRC.

The first new train should arrive in Brazil by October, according to the São Paulo state government, with deliveries due for completion by 2026. The new fleet will be deployed on two extensions of Line 15 that are currently being built by the CEML consortium; from Vila Prudente to Ipiranga in the west, and from Jardim Colonial in the east to Boa Esperança and Jacu Pêssego.

The new fleet will be similar in layout and passenger amenities to the current Line 15/Silver fleet of 54 seven-car Bombardier Innova monorail trains.

Line 20 bidding suspended

Separately, São Paulo Metro has suspended tendering of a contract to undertake basic architectural and engineering design of Line 20/Pink.

The contract for the 33km Line 20 with 24 stations has been divided into two lots, from Santa Marina to Abraão de Morais and from there to Santo André.

São Paulo Metro selected the MNEPI Line 20 consortium of Maubertec and Engevix as preferred bidder for both lots 1 and 2.

However, both MNEPI Line 20 and the bidder awarded second place, a consortium of Sener Setepla, Egis and Setec, filed an appeal against the decision.

MNEPI Line 20 has asked São Paulo Metro to disqualify Sener Setepla-Egis-Setec, as well as the CAS L20 consortium ranked fourth for both lots. It says that their proof of professional experience is based on staff with qualifications obtained outside of Brazil.

For its part, Sener Setepla-Egis-Setec alleges that MNEPI Line 20 has been awarded the best score on price unfairly, as it uses the same team to design both lots 1 and 2.

Design work on both lots is intended to proceed in parallel, requiring two separate teams. Sener Setepla-Egis-Setec says that the 10-strong team in the MNEPI Line 20 bid would be too small to work on both lots at the same time.

São Paulo Metro says in a statement that it customary for appeals to be made against contract awards and that tendering will resume once it has considered the allegations.

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