Just in time for Olympics: New KfW-financed light rail system starts operating in Rio de Janeiro

• EUR 265 million to finance energy-efficient and climate-friendly local transport in Brazil
• CO2 emissions reduced by around 325,000 tonnes
• Twelve million car trips avoided

Just in time for the start of the Olympics, the first section of Rio de Janeiro’s new “VLT Carioca” light rail system has gone into service. On behalf of the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), KfW provided a EUR 133 million loan to help finance the modern, eco-friendly, user-friendly and accessible local transport system with a total length of 13.5 kilometres. The light rail system can now carry up to 8,400 people every hour, thereby saving 324,000 tonnes of CO2 over a 25-year lifespan and eliminating 12 million car trips every year. The total costs of the light rail system are approximately EUR 428 million. Other donors are the Brazilian government and private banks.

The loan totalling EUR 265 million went to the Brazilian development bank Banco Nacional do Desenvolvimento Economico e Social (BNDES), which in turn directs the funds to private or public investors for the financing of local public transport projects of particular environmental importance in various Brazilian cities. In addition, KfW supports the BNDES in the development of methods for “climate monitoring” of transport projects.

“The use of energy-efficient technologies in Brazil’s transport sector contributes to global climate protection thanks to large savings in energy resources. Furthermore, Brazilians living in cities, and especially the poorer segments of the population, will benefit from the increased mobility provided by the new light rail system and its good connections to existing bus, ferry and train systems in Rio de Janeiro,” said Dr Norbert Kloppenburg, Member of the KfW Group Executive Board.

The project is part of a wide-ranging funding programme operated by the German government to support local public transport, and especially climate-friendly and sustainable transport options, in selected urban and metropolitan regions in Brazil. Current plans call for a second tranche of the loan to help finance a metro line in Salvador de Bahia.

Further information on KfW Development Bank is available at

www.kfw-entwicklungsbank.de