The federal government plans to hold 14 highway auctions next year, Transport Minister Renan Filho said ontem (11). The number surpasses, according to him, the 13 highway auctions held throughout the year 2025.
“We’re going to break this year’s record,” he said, while participating in the auction of the Fernão Dias Highway , promoted by B3, in the capital of São Paulo.
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“We have already held 22 [highway auctions since the beginning of President Lula’s term]. Next year we will hold 14 [new auctions] and, in addition to doing many more new things, we are also solving past problems that had been swept under the rug. This is very significant for Brazil,” the minister highlighted in an interview with journalists.
According to Renan Filho, railway auctions are also planned . “We are also going to hold eight railway auctions and we are going to turn around railway investment in the country.”
This afternoon, Motiva (formerly CCR) won the auction for the optimized contract of the Fernão Dias Highway after offering a 17.05% discount on the toll rate. With this offer, the company beat two other competitors, the current highway concessionaire, Arteris Fernão Dias, and the EPR Group (Consorcio Infraestrutura MG).
This optimized contract auction for the BR-381 highway is part of the strategy of the Ministry of Transport and the National Land Transport Agency (ANTT) to modernize old highway concession contracts and is the fourth of its kind carried out by the current government. However, this was the first time there was competition and control passed to another company.
Auction of the Fernão Dias highway, which connects São Paulo to Belo Horizonte – Photo: Frame/Youtube Ministry of Transport
“Today, for the first time in the history of public concession contracts in Brazil, and through an auction, a company that was underperforming in a contract was removed to make way for another, in order to improve performance and strengthen investments,” the minister emphasized.
The transition of control between the former concessionaire (Arteris) and the winning company of the auction should occur quickly, estimated Renan Filho. “We will coordinate this exit with Arteris and make it happen as quickly as possible. We will demand full quality and commitments during the transition so that citizens are respected in this new phase,” he said.
“One really cool thing [about this contract] is that whoever comes in has to start building right away. Motiva will have to carry out a series of works in the first year, which will ensure that people traveling along the Fernão Dias highway – between Belo Horizonte and São Paulo – will notice the improvements resulting from the contract,” he added.
According to the president of Motiva Rodovias, Eduardo Camargo, the expectation is that the transition contract will be signed in April or May of next year . “What is foreseen in the contract is a signing between April and May. As we have a good relationship with both the concessionaire, Arteris, and the ANTT (National Agency for Land Transport), our intention is to get closer, get to know them, and understand how the operation is going, but the effective change of control should occur between the end of April and the beginning of May,” he estimated.
