Children play in a pool at the house of an absent alleged drug trafficker at the Complexo do Alemão slum in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Sunday, Nov. 28, 2010. Image by AP photographer, Andre Penner, via the Boston Globe.
Back in October, I brought notice to Rio’s Complexo do Alemao Teleférico. In that post I stated that based upon available information, the system was to be operational by the end of this year.
Unfortunately in late November, Rio and the Complexo do Alemao favela were witness to a nasty battle between insurgent drug cartels and Brazilian security forces, resulting in the loss of dozens of lives. (Note: Some of the images in the provided link may be disturbing to some individuals.)
For obvious reasons, work on the Teleférico was suspended.
Since then, Brazilian security forces claim to have driven the drug cartels out of the favela and, in symbolic display of victory, “raised the flags of Brazil and Rio de Janeiro state over an unfinished cable-car station to show that they had taken control of the Complexo do Alemao.”
Meanwhile, according to The Guardian UK, “some urban planners wonder if installing cable-car networks is an effective use of public money or merely an attractive proposition for contractors.”
While I have no doubt that this system is an attractive proposition for contractors, I’d point out that any infrastructure project is an attractive proposition for contractors. That does not, however, invalidate the potential value of a given project.
Work has resumed on the Teleférico and it is now scheduled to open in February.