Railroad infrastructure supervision capacity is strengthened

(Lima, September 12, 2013). A total of 60 professionals were trained in the framework of the First International Seminar on Railroad Infrastructure Supervision held on September 10 - 12, organized by the Organismo Supervisor de la Inversión en Infraestructura de Transporte de Uso Público (Ositran) (Supervisory Organization for Investment in Public Transportation Infrastructure) with the support of CAF, Development Bank of Latin America. 

The President of Ositran, Patricia Benavente; CAF's Director Representative in Peru, Eleonora Silva Pardo; and the President of the Comité Pro Integración de ProInversión, Carlos Puga, inaugurated the activity which included the participation of staff from the ministries of Economy and Finances, Transportation and Communications, as well as from Proinversion, the Autonomous Authority of the Electric Train (Aate, for its acronym in Spanish), in addition to executives from the railroad project consortiums. 

Patricia Benavente, President of the regulatory organization, stated that, "With this event, Ositran seeks to generate high-level technical specialized spaces for the actors of the railroad sector, with the objective of maintaining and improving the conditions of the railroads infrastructure at a national level. Above all, it allows us to prepare ourselves to face a new challenge, such as the supervision of the design, construction, operation, and maintenance of the Lima and Callao Metro." 

At the same time, Eleonora Silva Pardo noted that for the multilateral financial entity it is very important to support initiatives such as the Lima Metro both in the project design as well as in the institutional aspect. 

In this regard, she stated that CAF supports the regulatory organization Ositran to strengthen its capacity in regulatory and supervisory issues of Line 1 of the Lima Metro, by developing seminars that allow for the analysis and reflection regarding different practices of mass urban transport in Latin American and European cities. 

The main speaker in the International Seminar for the Supervision of Railroad Infrastructure carried out in the framework of the Non-Reimbursable Technical Cooperation Agreement between CAF and Ositran was Javier Gonzalez Fernandez, Doctor in Industrial Engineering with more than 30 years of experience in supervision, maintenance, and development of railroad infrastructures, mainly in the Madrid Metro. 

Gonzalez Fernandez spoke about the studies carried out regarding a railroad system to determine the degree of reliability, availability, maintenance, and security. During the three day seminar, the participants were trained in reliability, availability, maintenance, and security in the railroad environment, as well as the analysis of risks of human origin.