BI-OCEANIC RAILWAY

The NOA-CENTRE Bi-oceanic Railway Corridor Project, which participates in the globalization process, offers opportunities for the countries involved and builds assets at a global economic level.
The economic dynamics lead to a significant flow of goods and services and encourages business management to reach new global markets that enable growth and relocation. In order to achieve quality products on time, it is necessary for enterprises to carry out thorough logistics management that includes the coordination of production, marketing, and supply. If this were to occur, it would become a great tool to gain a competitive edge.

In the midst of a constant search to decrease the length of transit time and to generate competitive products at a global stage, South America is one of the regions where a great number of studies and proposals have been developed to enable the journey across it by making use of interoceanic corridors as means for multimodal transportation.
With that in mind, Argentina puts forward its future Bi-oceanic Railway Corridor. Its location allows not only the geo-economic analysis but also its implementation in a multi-regional context. Situated across Paso Internacional de San Francisco, the Bi-oceanic Railway Corridor is of great strategic importance for the development of the ATACALAR provinces. Thus, it generates much interest due to its evident potential.

The ATACALAR Integration Committee consists of the following Argentine provinces: La Rioja, Catamarca, Tucumán, Santiago del Estero, Cordoba, Entre Ríos and Santa Fé; as well as the Chilean side of Atacama. It represents a great opportunity for development for the provinces and regions involved, and even more so for Argentina, Chile and Brazil. Together, these countries could meet the increasing order of agro-food demanded by China and India, amongst other Asian markets.

The project’s main goal is for the provinces of Córdoba, Santiago del Estero, Santa Fe, Entre Ríos, Salta, San Luis, San Juan, and Catamarca to link Argentina’s production core to the Third Region of Atacama-Chile ports, as an access point to Pacific-Asia and as a great opportunity to add value to its resulting products and to generate activities for the world to see, by means of innovation.

For producers, the NOA-CENTRE Bi-oceanic Railway Corridor will become an efficient and profitable alternative. A 40% increase of the export volume is projected for 2030 and the major draught ports in the Atacama could meet the demand.

The project has a great competitive edge, which includes a 30% freight cost reduction, double the loading capacity, a decrease of navigation time (between 12 and 15 days), and deeper draught ports (three times deeper than the Bs.As. And Rosario ports). This represents more loading capacity for ships (about 400.000 tonnes more than in 50.000 local ports).

• The creation of legitimate jobs.
• An increase in work productivity and specialization of new strategic areas.
• A decrease in problems derived from far of selling points.
• Agility and efficiency in foreign trade. An increase of added value for exports.
• The development of export capacity with a focus on the global economy.
• An increase in foreign investment. A boost and incorporation of new technologies.
• The development of deprived and isolated areas.
• Better life quality of distant settlements.
• Prevents from depopulation in distant areas.
• The creation of strategic hubs.
• The strengthening of the regional tourism activity.

– The corridor is situated across the regions NOA and Centre’s production core, which puts its multi-modal load transfer ports closer to production hubs.

– It is set in between the Pasos that are distributed along with the Andes range. It is positioned towards the third Chilean region ports of deeper draught to allow the exit of great product volume.

-It is not affected by the southern Argentine Pasos’ climatic conditions, which are closed for the most part of the year due to heavy snowfall.

– The corridor has the same gauge width as the Chilean one, narrow. This is not the case of the other local ones.

– It is one of the most multi-modal transit-friendly because of its slope, which is less than 1.4%.

– Adding value to products and generating balanced development, in order to establish itself as a powerhouse with federal growth.

– Saving 30% of freight in products exported to Asia.

– Lightening the load of being in the centre that weights on Capital Federal, which results in an increase of marginality for the rest of the provinces.

– The Bi-oceanic Railway Corridor will benefit a group of national provinces that, together with the Chilean region of ATACAMA, have been established as a cluster for the alignment of interests and objectives.

– The project includes more than 12 million inhabitants, 12.5 million of arable hectares and an export offer of U$S 31.465.000.000.