Wilson Santos disputes new BRT deadlines and says the schedule has become “fiction”

During the clarifications, Sinfra informed that the first section of the BRT, between Marechal Rondon International Airport, in Várzea Grande, and Avenida Historiador Rubens de Mendonça – Avenida do CPA, in Cuiabá, should have work completed by December 2026, with work starting in June 2025 with delivery scheduled for December of the same year. With the delay, the deadline was transferred to the end of 2026.

The second stage, which comprises the corridor between Avenida Tenente-Coronel Duarte and the Coxipó region, along Avenida Fernando Corrêa da Costa, will not be carried out under the current government. Sinfra confirmed that there is no tender or contract for the works and that the documentation for the purchase of the fleet is still in the preparation phase. He also informed that the decision not to open a new works front was to avoid new impacts on urban mobility before the completion of the first corridor.

2014 World Cup – Wilson Santos recalled that the problems involving the urban mobility system in the metropolitan region have been ongoing since the choice of Cuiabá as one of the sub-hosts for the 2014 World Cup, with the announcement taking place on May 31, 2009, a period in which he held the position of mayor of the capital. "It was not the first time that Sinfra's top management was called to appear to clarify a project that had been going on for almost two decades. It had been more than 17 years. We celebrated that Cuiabá was one of the states chosen in the World Cup, we would have a list of strategic works for the city and, since then, almost 20 years have passed. Many promises, deadlines and deadlines made", he declared.

Although he recognized the volume of investments carried out by Sinfra in recent years, the deputy stated that the BRT represents one of the main infrastructure impasses in state management. "Sinfra carried out a package of works unprecedented in the political and administrative history of Mato Grosso. According to the secretary, there were more than 7 thousand kilometers of asphalt paving and 3 thousand kilometers of restoration, more than 300 concrete bridges", acknowledged the parliamentarian.

Deadlines – On the other hand, Wilson Santos questioned the insistence on presenting new schedules for the BRT given the history of non-compliance with deadlines. For him, the absence of an executive project for the second stage and the uncertainty regarding terminals, stations, bus fleet and electrical vehicle power system prevent a safe forecast for the full completion of the modal.

"You have to stop thinking about deadlines, because it won't be finished this year. Of course it won't be finished. Fernando Corrêa doesn't have a project. It's 7,200 meters. It doesn't have a terminal. Where's the 15 de Novembro Terminal? Lago do Rosário Terminal and in front of the PM? I went there yesterday, just bush. The terminals are zero. Everything is zero. And the buses will run? There are 54. They'll be powered by electricity, where's the electricity system? He Will it be underground, will it have an aerial system?”, asked the deputy.

Sinfra confirmed at the hearing that the acquisition of the fleet still depends on the completion of the bidding documentation and that the operationalization of the vehicles remains under study. For Wilson Santos, the information presented by the Secretariat reinforces the difficulty of establishing a definitive date. "No deadline given by Sinfra is met. There is no longer a deadline. What is there is a tangle and this work is complex. It fell into the hands of companies that have never worked on this type of work. They have no experience. The desperation to make money", he criticized.

For him, the history that began with the Light Rail Vehicle (VLT) and followed by the implementation of the BRT transformed the urban mobility project into a project with no concrete completion date. He compared the situation in Mato Grosso with the implementation of the VLT in Salvador, Bahia. "This is a long soap opera. It started in 2012 and is now in its 14th year. The Bahians bought our trains and, in two years, they have already started running the VLT in Salvador. Here we have been dragging on for years, without having a precise date and a properly met deadline. These deadlines are fictions", he concluded.