Transcarioca is the main road project for World CupOne of the most significant urban projects in Rio de Janeiro, in preparation for the 2014 FIFA World Cup™, the Transcarioca project has already compulsorily purchased 700 homes and the forecast is that the total figure will be more than three thousand properties. Work started last week. The total Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project will be 39 kilometers long and will connect Barra da Tijuca, in the West Zone, to Antônio Carlos Jobim International Airport (also known as Galeão) on Governor’s Island, with the use of articulated buses travelling along exclusive lanes.
So far, 70 dwellings have been demolished and the families owning the houses that have been taken over were relocated to Cosmos, also in the West Zone, in a housing estate financed by the My House, My Life (Minha Casa, Minha Vida) programme.
However, there are quite a few residents who are far from happy. This is the case of people living in Campinho Square, in the North Zone, which is right on the path of Transcarioca. In this location, most people have owned their properties for some 30 years, but do not have the registration documents. The Public Solicitor of the Land and Housing Nucleus, Roberta Fraenkel, explains that there are more than 40 families who refuse to leave their homes without receiving fair compensation or the right to be relocated close to where they live.
“The Law says that the person is relocated as close as possible to where he or she lived before, or receives compensation to buy a house wherever they like. The problem is that the municipality has not originally offered compensation to these people, nor relocation close by”, the solicitor explains. She also remembers that new properties are not free of charge, and the residents will pay a fee of R$ 50 every month to the Federal Savings Bank (Caixa Econômica) for a period of ten years.
A resident of Campinho Square, who declined to be identified in fear of retaliations, said that after a long struggle the Mayor of Rio de Janeiro, Eduardo Paes, on Thursday March 17th, agreed to assess the houses so that a compensation level may then be studied. The measurements were conducted this morning (March 21st).
“They have finally agreed to pay compensation. Our fear is now that they may want to pay a very low value which would mean that we could not buy anything around here”, he said. The resident believes that his house, with three rooms, a backyard and a porch, is worth something around R$ 50 thousand and fears that the City Hall may only pay about R$ 20 thousand, which, in his opinion, is not enough to buy anything.
According to the public defender, the families that are having their homes taken over are not happy and resist the idea of moving out. “The fact is, however, that in many cases they [the families] end up giving in, with the pressure from the Government. We have reports from some families that have been relocated to Cosmos, who live in houses with cracked walls and also have to live with the presence of paramilitary militia groups in the condominiums”.
The investments to be made in the Transcarioca project are around R$ 2 billion, of which R$ 1.1 billion are financed by the Federal Government and the rest by Rio de Janeiro City Hall. The main aim of this proposal is to bring about a 60% reduction in travel times between Barra and Galeão. This expressway should serve some 400 thousand passengers per day. The work plans for 45 stations, three terminals for loading and offloading passengers, nine bridges, three cuttings, ten viaducts, the doubling of the roadways and also the development of the adjacent areas.
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04/05 | News
