Italy and Venezuela have signed a letter of intent for the construction of the missing stretch of the railway linking Caracas with Puerto Cabello, central Venezuela, partially built by a consortium of Italian companies.
The intergovernmental agreement, signed by Venezuela's state railway institute IAFE, which reports to the Venezuelan Infrastructure Ministry, and the Italian embassy, is for the construction of the 70-km-long Cua-La Encrucijada stretch.
The letter of intent is the basis for awarding the contract to an Italian partner which is expected to be the consortium of construction companies Astaldi-Ghella-Impregilo.
The consortium won the contract to build the other two sections of the railway line, Caracas-Cua and La Encrucijada-Puerto Cabello.
According to an IAFE statement, the construction will use a mostly Venezuelan workforce with a professional training programme organised for local employees.
In the past three years the contracts awarded by the Venezuelan government to Italian companies specialised in infrastructure construction exceeded $10 bln (6.839 bln euro).
