Feds to assume larger role in tram construction; city awaits new manager

Ecuador’s minister of public works and former Cuenca mayor Paúl Granda met with city officials Monday to review the status of the tram project. The meeting was a follow-up to last week’s meeting in Quito between President Lenin Moreno and Cuenca Mayor Marcelo Cabrera in which Moreno promised his support to finish the project.

Minister of Public Works Paúl Granda

Granda said that the government would provide oversight and technical assistance to assure quality control of the project as well as to assist financially if necessary.

“As the government, we are responsible for evaluating and and following up on the project to make certain that that resources are invested properly and that the work is completed to specification,” he said. “We will work with the city of Cuenca in this matter.”

Granda said that he is contracting with engineers from the University of Azuay to perform quality control tests on the tramway as construction progresses.

Granda was mayor of Cuenca when tram construction began.

The tram has been without a project manager since October, when the Spanish company Consorcio Cuatro Ríos de Cuenca walked off the job in a payment dispute with the city. City tram coordinator Edison Castro says that a contract with a new project manager will be signed this month.

Overall, Castro says that work on the tram is between 80% and 90% complete.