The project called La Paloma Hub (LPH) It has already been presented to the Presidency of the Republic, the Ministry of Transportation and Public Works (MTOP) and the Municipal Administration of Rocha. In addition to the important cargo activity, it also plans to incorporate a dock for cruises and nautical activities, and a land activity area is planned, where logistics activities will be carried out and a free zone.
The project foresees an investment of more than US$1.6 billion and is still being studied by the authorities. Ambit spoke with Jorge Cárcova Munilla, vice president of Multimodal Logistics Corridor, and Antonio Marinettogeneral director of the initiative.
“It has been six years since the studies began. The first steps were to frame a possible project and precisely see what demand there is, what response it could have at the regional level because a project of this type greatly exceeds the loads that move in the Uruguay. It was decided to present a private initiative under Uruguayan law and preliminary studies of a pre-project began, because the private initiative cannot present a definitive project,” Marinetto stressed.
Regarding the effects on the environment, Corcova considered that “we consider the environmental impact to be positive, since the natural depth of 18 meters of the river does not require dredging, which in itself produces effects that are polluting. In addition, the visual impact It is absolutely positive for the beach Dovebeyond the quality tourism that will come to the area,” he said.
On the other hand, the general director of the consortium in charge of the investment explained that “this port is outside the area of the CARU (Uruguay River Administrative Commission), therefore, it would be the first and only sovereign port of the Uruguay with which the Uruguayan government would not have to agree with any neighboring country.”
The port will also work with a concept of “sustainable and sustainable” energy. “It will be through solar panels or wind towers. The coast is very windy and you can take advantage of other advantages. With this electricity, not only will everything in the port be managed, but it will also offer that power outlet to the ships so that they can stop their engines while they are in the port and they will not have to consume electricity. gasoil and making emissions into the atmosphere,” reported Marinetto, who has solid experience in launching ports at an international level.
The step by step until the port in La Paloma is operational
The total investment will exceed 1.6 billion dollars and will be carried out by a group of Uruguayan investors and Argentines which is, in addition, an investment promotion group, its managers point out
“We will rely on new investments to raise all the capital that is necessary. We are already very advanced on this issue as well,” said Marinetto, who explained to this medium that “the financiers of the port of La Paloma are very large European companies that have signed pre-agreements and confidentiality contracts.” Once the private initiative is approved by the Executive Branch, their names will be announced.
Investors hope to take sufficient steps to make the project a reality soon. “Now we are in the stage of hope. We have worked for six years to be able to carry out these previous studies on the morphology of the port, where it is located and how and what convenience each point has for its location, with the least carbon footprint and greater efficiency,” the developers noted.
“After it is approved, a frenetic stage of final studies of everything will begin. After that, we will have to deliver to the government the bidding documents and the preliminary project of the port with all its business plans to enter a bidding stage in accordance with Uruguayan regulations,” explained the two people responsible for the initiative. Once the tender is finalized, work will begin, which is expected to take four or five years.
More green hydrogen production for Uruguay
In addition to working with clean energy, the new port hub of Dove foresees the possibility of producing green hydrogen on site, generating the seawater desalination process to avoid using potable water, in order to make the entire project sustainable.
The project director Jóse Cárcova said that “it would be practically impossible for the proposal to come to fruition.” Ancap if there were not a port like ours, which is very close and that will allow you to take food to people who are working, remove waste so that it does not contaminate the sea water, and install wind turbines.”
Source: Ambito
