Decision responds to AGU’s request, which cites losses in infrastructure and job creation, and investor insecurity
TRF-4 (Federal Regional Court of the 4th Region) overturned an injunction on Tuesday (September 19, 2023) which suspended the auction of the 1st lot of highways held by ANTT (National Land Transport Agency) on August 25th. Here’s the full decision (PDF – 373 kB).
The competition was won by Infraestrutura Brasil Holding XXI SA, controlled by Grupo Pátria. The lot has 473 km of sections of federal highways (BR-277/373/376/476) in Paraná and state highways (PR-418/423/427). And it includes the creation of 5 toll booths, in the cities of São Luiz do Purunã (BR-277), Lapa (BR-476), Porto Amazonas (BR-277), Imbituva (BR-373) and Irati (BR-277).
The injunction from the 11th Federal Court of Curitiba was issued on September 5th. It responded to a request from the DPU (Federal Public Defender’s Office). According to the Ombudsman’s Office, quilombola communities living near a stretch of BR-476 would not have been consulted about the works.
In the appeal, the AGU (Attorney General of the Union) stated that ANTT held public hearings on the project and that any specific consultations with communities may be carried out during the execution of the contract, more specifically in the process of obtaining environmental licensing by the company winning the auction.
AGU argued, according to statementthat the suspension of the auction would postpone the investments of R$ 4.4 billion planned for the highways, “considered fundamental to improve traffic in the region and provide security to the population using the roads that are part of the concession”. It would also put the creation of 81,000 job vacancies at risk, delay the schedules of other ANTT concession lots and could cause legal uncertainty for investors.
The president of TRF-4, Fernando Quadros da Silva, welcomed the arguments. He highlighted “serious damage to public order, security and the public economy, taking into account the consequences resulting from the suspension of the auction in question, which cause losses”.
He stated that consultations with quilombola communities “can be carried out at an opportune time, in the event of a possible risk to the protected territorial integrity, which will also depend on approval through the preparation of an environmental report”.
#TRF4 #overturns #injunction #suspended #highway #auction #Paraná