By IANS
Sao Paulo : Brazilian authorities have announced a series of investment projects aimed at alleviating congestion at airports here and reducing the risk of accidents like the one earlier this month that killed some 200 people, the Spanish news agency EFE said.
The projects, estimated to cost around $1.8 billion, are to be carried out jointly by public and private associations with funding from the federal government, the state of Sao Paulo and private companies, Sao Paulo Governor Jose Serra said.
Most of the new proposals presented by Serra are focused on Guarulhos, a suburb of Sao Paulo, Brazil's largest city.
Among the priorities is a plan to construct a third runway at the city's Cumbica International Airport and carry out a terminal expansion project that will increase capacity at the facility to seven million passengers annually.
The federal government announced last week the construction of a new airport for Sao Paulo, although regional authorities say a better idea would be to expand and improve the two existing airports on the city's periphery – Cumbica and the Viracopos-Campinas Airport, located 90 km from here.
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