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SANTA FE.- For this province and for those that make up the Central Region, the arrival of production to the ports for processing and/or export, in a timely manner, ensures good results and improves the analysis of costs. For this reason, in recent months, the administration headed by Maximiliano Pullaro intensified a request to the national government to transfer three routes considered key in the movement of production.
These are national routes 11, A-012 and 33, whose condition is “deplorable” according to local officials. These roads connect, for example, oil processing plants and private ports that export grain and meat products, but they are also important for communication with manufacturing centers located in the central region of the country.
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“There are about 1000 kilometers, a little more than a third of the kilometers that the national routes run through our province. We have had several meetings with national officials. We were recently with the Minister of Economy, Luis Caputo, and, although we have made a lot of progress, we are waiting for them to respond. For the decree to be signed. We are not asking for anything more than for them to be repaired, we want to end this road poverty of asking for the potholes to be repaired. Let them pass us (those routes) so that we can organize ourselves and repair them. We need a decree that allows us to work on that,” said today in response to a question from LA NACION the provincial Minister of Public Works, Leandro Enrico.
“We will insist until they give us the roads so we can repair them. In this sense, I have two options: either I stay seated at the Ministry and do nothing, or I go knocking on doors in Buenos Aires. I do the latter. Sometimes things are not achieved at first, but I know that we have to insist and manage,” the official insisted.
Enrico recalled that “the government has made a political decision, but they have to implement it. We still do not have the signed decree that transfers the routes to us. The Minister of Economy made that commitment at the Rosario Stock Exchange more than a month ago. We are moving forward, but it depends on the national government. We are waiting for them to respond. We cannot continue with an obsolete road infrastructure, from one hole to another,” Enrico explained.
He then demanded: “Let us organize an operation and maintenance scheme for these routes and do it, like all organized countries, with a toll system. In these 10 months that we have been in office, the officials at the National Highway Department have changed for three months and it is a new start. We made these requests again and they told us the same thing as the Minister of Economy, that they are having a debate about these concessions,” he pointed out.
He explained that “what is most worrying is the lack of investment. We do not expect large-scale works or highways. According to the agreements, they have to cut the grass and repair the wells, that is, they have to do the basics, and they do not do it,” said Enrico.
For his part, Gustavo Puccini, Minister of Productive Development, one of the officials who accompanied Governor Pullaro to the last meeting with Caputo in Buenos Aires, said that “we are not a province that is going to beg or ask for subsidies or plans. We are going with strategic issues for Santa Fe and the Argentine Republic, mainly the national routes where we are asking that they take charge of routes in very bad condition. That they give us the routes if they cannot maintain them because we want to find a concrete solution for repair and maintenance. Minister Enrico went nine times to look for that signature that is still being delayed. We hope that before the end of the year they give us the routes,” he stressed.
The roads
The complaint about the state of National Route 11, especially in the north-central part of Santa Fe, has been going on since last year, due to impassable stretches and dozens of tragic accidents. This route, called “Carretera Juan de Garay”, starts in Rosario and connects the provinces of Santa Fe, Chaco and Formosa. It ends at the international bridge “San Ignacio de Loyola”, on the border with Paraguay.
National Route A 012 is a 67-kilometer semicircular highway that connects San Lorenzo and Pueblo Esther, bypassing Rosario and the ports of the most important oilseed hub in the interior of the country.
Finally, National Highway 33 or “Dr. Adolfo Alsina Desert Route” connects National Highway 3 in the city of Bahía Blanca with Rosario’s Ring Road. The most interesting section is the one that connects Rufino with Rosario. |
