The Ministry of Infrastructure established new company authorization procedures and contractual conditions for the exploration of railways and rail yards, in line with the new legal framework for railways (Provision Measure n.º 1.065/2021).
Ordinance n.º 131/2021 from the Ministry of Infrastructure established new company authorization procedures for the exploration of railways and rail yards, in line with the new legal framework for railways (Provision Measure n.º 1.065/2021). Companies interested in developing and exploring new railway infrastructure must follow the conditions of the new administrative process to be granted an exploration permit.
The railway exploration permit must be ratified through a standard form agreement between the authorized company and the Federal Government (Ministry of Infrastructure), whose term may last up to 99 years and be postponed by an equal period, under specific conditions (article 3). The ministry is the granting authority, while the National Land Transport Agency (ANTT) manages specific procedures of the administrative process.
Interested companies must formally request authorization and submit the documents listed in article 5 to the Ministry of Infrastructure. Deadlines for the ministry to formalize and analyze the request, and for the company to submit corrections, are described in articles 6 and 7. The National Land Transport Agency (ANTT) must analyze the request in 45 days.
In case of competition between the requests from different companies concerning the same area of influence, a compatibility analysis will be carried out, which may result in authorization for all requests (articles 8 and 9). Further authorization conditions are provided in articles 10 to 17, including provisions on transfer of ownership of the authorization, contract suspension, and termination of the authorization.
