Peru to invest US$4bn/y in social infrastructure through 2021

Peru's government aims to invest up to 12bn soles/y (US$4bn) annually over the next three years to close what it calls a social infrastructure gap, a senior official said.

The government plans to pave 4,160km of roads to increase the percentage of the Andean country's paved roads to 91% from currently 78%, transport and communications minister Edmer Trujillo said.

Other projects include converting 500km of the Pan American Highway into a dual carriageway road and completing 141km of the longitudinal highway. About 7bn soles/y will be allocated to investment projects and 3-4bn soles/y to infrastructure maintenance, he said.

"There's a very large gap," Trujillo told state gazette El Peruano. "There's a lot to be done in the transport sector."

Other transport projects such as the modernization of the Pisco and Salaverry ports, the US$235mn Huancayo-Huancavelica railway upgrade and a second runway at Lima's Jorge Chávez airport are also scheduled for completion by 2021, Trujillo said.

The government also aims to award concessions for another eight regional airports, the ports of Chimbote and San Juan de Marcona and the US$5bn coastal railway, he said.

Housing

In other infrastructure news, work will get underway in March 2019 on a 28mn-sol housing project in Lima, the housing and construction ministry said.

The four-stage project in Lima's impoverished Carabayllo district, part of the Techo Propio and Mivienda state housing programs, will feature 1,840 three-bedroom apartments, parking spaces, swimming pools, a gym and a children's play area, deputy housing minister Jorge Arévalo said in a statement. The project is scheduled for completion by mid-2021, according to the ministry.

President Vizcarra's mandate expires in July 2021.