La Paz, Bolivia: The World Bank (WB) Board of Executive Directors approved US$225 million in financing to improve road sector management in Bolivia.
The Road Sector Capacity Development Project will facilitate the mobility of 3.5 million inhabitants: 2.6 million in Santa Cruz, 400,000 in Beni and 500,000 in other areas using this corridor, world bank press release said.
"This project falls within the 2025 Patriotic Agenda of the Pluri-National State of Bolivia," said the Minister for Public Works, Services and Housing, Milton Claros. "It seeks to improve asset management, including pavement rehabilitation activities, drainage, road safety issues, right of way management and routine management; all of this through a performance-based, lump sum package of contracts, called Rehabilitation and Standard Compliance Contracts."
Specifically, 567 km of the Trinidad-Santa Cruz road will be rehabilitated, resurfaced and maintained for a total of US$215 million. The Bolivian Road Agency will also receive US$10 million in financing for the development of a rehabilitation strategy for the primary road network, training and certification of technical personnel, support for contract management via a new methodology and the implementation of a comprehensive information and activity system to mitigate climate risks.
The project will contribute to the attainment of results in the areas of sustained productive development, efficiency of the public sector, and access to basic services for human development, all fields where the World Bank has been working alongside Bolivia in recent years.
The implementation of this project will finalize in 2021. Funding will come from a US$59.05 million credit from the International Development Association (IDA), including a 25-year maturity period and a 5-year grace period; and a US$165.95 million loan from the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), whose capital will be reimbursed in its entirety in July 2035.
QNA
