ARGENTINA: Jorge Irigoin, President of Buenos Aires metro construction authority Sbase, has resigned two weeks after the city’s Minister of Urban Development Daniel Chain announced a 75% reduction in the budget for metro development.
The figure of 447m pesos approved by the city government last December has now been cut to 115·8m pesos, due to lack of funds. During his electoral campaign in 2007, Mayor Mauricio Macri promised to build 10 km of metro a year, and appointed Irigoin to head up the expansion at Sbase.
The government has already cancelled plans to build lines F, G and I. The latest cutback is likely to affect work on seven new stations currently under construction on lines A, B and H.
On February 20 Alstom delivered the last of 16 Metropolis trainsets to operator Metrovías. The six-car trains, ordered in 1999, are currently in service on Line D.
