A road for integration, trade, and tourism

In the Southwest of Potosi, Uyuni is the entry gate to one of the most important tourism sites in Bolivia: the Salar de Uyuni. Since August 2012, it is connected by a paved road with the capital of the Department of Potosi.   

With a loan for USD 75 million added to 33.2 million in local contributions, CAF, Development Bank of Latin America, financed the construction of this section which is part of the Bolivia-Chile integration corridor.

The highway allows for hundreds of thousands of visitors to access one of the greatest tourism attractions; the largest salt reservoir on the planet, with nine million tons of lithium.

In addition, more than 150 thousand inhabitants of Agua de Castilla, Porco, Chaquilla, Pelca, Tica Tica, Ollerías and Pulacayo, dedicated to the production of royal quinoa, camelid raising, mining, and tourism will benefit from an infrastructure that enables a better communication with domestic and international markets.

Potosí -Uyuni seeks to revert the situation of poverty of the area Southwest of Potosi, improving the commercial flows of agricultural products and other goods and services; connecting the departments of Cochabamba, Oruro and Chuquisaca and, at an external level, materializing the Bolivia, Argentina, Chile international corridor.

CAF complemented the construction of the road with social and environmental projects such as the generation of alternatives for the management of solid residues, and the restoration, management, and conservation of wetlands, which are vital for the conservation of the flora and fauna of the region, as well as for the maintenance of the camelid cattle and the production of royal quinoa, two productive areas in which this part of the country stands out.