Logistical chaos due to the inertia of the PR government

Since October, the population of Paraná has faced severe challenges when they need to travel to the State Coast. Whether via BR-277, BR-376 or Estrada da Graciosa, closures due to landslides require extra patience from drivers, as the duration of the trip has increased significantly. There are reports of people taking more than eight hours to travel just over 100 kilometers between the capital Curitiba and the coastal cities.

The situation is likely to worsen from the second half of January onwards, when harvesting and the disposal of the summer crop begin. This is because thousands of trucks loaded with soybeans and corn from all regions of the State will take the road towards the Coast, to unload at the Port of Paranaguá. After all, Paraná is an important exporter of grains to different parts of the world.

This situation of roads with partial (and, depending on the rain, total) interruption could have been avoided if the government of Paraná had listened to the warning from the productive sector. In August 2021, before the end of the toll concession contracts, FAEP and other entities warned governments about the risks of interrupting services provided by the concessionaires of the Integration Ring highways.

Even so, the state government preferred to turn its back on the productive sector and chose to open the toll gates, in an electoral measure of short duration and major consequences. There was a promise that the services would continue. I'm mistaken! Just drive along the roads to see signs of abandonment, poor asphalt, lack of emergency services and, of course, monitoring of the slopes.

A technical analysis contracted by FAEP points out that the recent geological incidents recorded on highways could have been avoided and/or their impacts minimized if the geological monitoring service had continued. In other words, much of the logistical chaos is due to the ineffectiveness of the state government.

As “what cannot be cured is curable”, it is necessary to look ahead and put solutions to problems into practice. There are sections of roads closed for more than two months, with no real plans for release. Whenever questioned, the state government states that it is providing emergency contracting of roadside correction services, without further details, limiting itself to populist rhetoric that creates a lot of heat and no light.

Society and the productive sectors, especially agribusiness which has a harvest ahead to sell, need an end to the rhetoric on the part of the state government. It is urgently necessary to clear the roads. More than that, the hiring of specialized companies to monitor the slopes, with the aim of providing safety to those traveling.

Paraná does not deserve this neglect!

By Ágide Meneguette, president of the FAEP/SENAR-PR System