TCU validates resettlement and works on the BH Ring Road can advance

The works to double the Belo Horizonte Ring Road, on the stretch of BR-381 between Avenida Cristiano Machado and Rio das Velhas, had a new chapter last week. The TCU (Federal Audit Court) validated last year's process related to the resettlement of families living in the area affected by the interventions and took a decision that could contribute to unlocking the project, which has been awaited for years.

The Court of Auditors considered that the determinations made previously in the process that accompanies the removal and resettlement of families impacted by the works were complied with.

According to the court, the area exchange agreement signed between the DNIT (National Department of Transport Infrastructure), the City of Belo Horizonte and Urbel (Companhia Urbanizadora e de Habitação de Belo Horizonte) will allow the resettlement of around 900 families that occupy the highway right-of-way.

With the decision, the court ordered that the process remain suspended for a period of one year. After this period, the case will be analyzed again so that the Court can decide whether monitoring should continue or whether the determinations can be terminated.

The duplication of the Ring Road is conditioned precisely on the execution of the plan for the removal and resettlement of low-income families living in the region. The action will be led by Urbel, while the financial transfers will be the responsibility of DNIT.

The initial proposal provided for the purchase of land for the construction of 630 housing units linked to the federal Minha Casa, Minha Vida program. To this end, in 2013, the municipality acquired 47 lots from Caixa Econômica Federal for R$4.9 million.

However, after the acquisition, the MPF (Federal Public Ministry) and the Federal Public Defender's Office began to act in defense of the affected communities. The intervention resulted in a legal agreement that suspended the transfers and determined that the resettlement be carried out with the support of judicial experts. As a result, the land purchased was not used for the construction of the planned houses.

Execution of the project was only resumed in October 2016, through a new modality of "assisted purchase", which provided for the acquisition of properties already built for direct delivery to benefiting families.

However, in 2019, it was found that the land initially acquired remained unused for the purposes set out in the agreement and had already been occupied irregularly. According to the case records, there were no effective measures to prevent new invasions in the areas purchased for resettlement.

Source: CNN