Engineer Ramon Perez Martinez, who as an engineer for Harris Consulting, worked on the design of the Medellin, Colombia metro, says that experiences in other countries ? Colombia, Venezuela and Puerto Rico ? clearly indicate that the metro will not cost what its promoter, Metro Minister Diandino Pena is announcing. “We are talking here that he has announced costs that are several times lower, not errors of 10-15%. We are talking of errors of 300, 400 or 500%,” he told Hoy newspaper in an interview. “I do not think the Dominican economy can bear losing the resources this metro will drain,” he said. Pena has announced construction cost of US$32-US$37 million the kilometer, when international standards range between US$100-US$150 million.
He says that he supports the construction of a tramway, in order to put an end to the dilapidation of resources with the purchase of buses that end up as junk every four years. In his opinion, Diandino Pena’s proposal has not been well thought out. He favors the construction of a lower costing above-ground tramway, which he says is economically viable and technologically much easier to build than the government’s metro proposal. He said that the transportation project has not been sufficiently studied. In his opinion, electricity and transport sectors are two areas that most effect the qualify of life in the capital city today.