Project Description

  • Project name: Strategic inland waterways plan
  • Project location: Brazil

  • Name of client: Ministry of Transport Brazil

  • Partners: Arcadis
  • Period: Feb 2013 – Oct 2013

Description of the project

The Brazilian Ministry of Transport (MT) started the project ‘ Strategic Inland Waterways Plan ’ (PHE) in July 2012 and wanted a Strategic Plan for Waterways. The aim: to increase the amount of cargo that is transported on the Brazilian waterways.

The International Water Transport system in Brazil was analysed on the national and the regional level. In this analysis the following elements have been considered:

  • Physical river system.
  • Environment and social aspects.
  • Economic aspects.
  • Transport system.
  • Governance & institutions.

PCR was responsible for the transport system and the governance and institution part of the study. The transportation system analysis addressed the components of International Water Transport  (IWT), like fleet, costs, crew etc. in order to assess competitiveness with respect to the road and rail modes in terms of cost, accessibility to the IWT market and system reliability.

The governance and institutions research started to map the legal and institutional framework in which IWT operates and portray governance in Brazilian waterways. Bottlenecks and strategic points which should be targeted for specific actions were identified.

From the evaluation on the elements of the current IWT system it was possible to identify strength and weaknesses of the current IWT sector and the opportunities and threats for future development, which served as the basis for defining the goal and strategies (main actions, guidelines and priorities and investment plan) for the successful development of IWT in Brazil.

Services provided by Port Consultants Rotterdam

  • Set-up of strategic framework.
  • Management of transport system research.
  • Management of governance and institutions research.
  • Priorities and action plan.