The Paraguayan government has not yet set a date for the first tender under the public transport reform, planned for the East–Mariscal López Functional Unit. As technical teams prepare the tender documents with Chilean support, bus companies say the system has gone about nine months without an update to the technical fare.
The tender is part of Law No. 7,617/2026 and is expected to cover the Mariscal López Avenue corridor in Asunción. Public Works and Communications Minister Claudia Centurión had announced the corridor as the first unit to be awarded, but the Vice Ministry of Transport (VMT), the government body responsible for regulating public transport, has not yet presented a timetable for the call for bids.
On September 3 and 4, representatives of the VMT, the Ministry of Public Works and Communications (MOPC), the Ministry of Economy and Finance, the National Development Bank and the operating companies took part in technical meetings with Paola Tapia, Chile’s former minister of Transport and Telecommunications, and Diego Cruz, a financial specialist from Santiago’s metropolitan transport system. The aim was to review the technical, financial and legal components of the future contract.
The cooperation is taking place under a memorandum signed by the MOPC and Chile’s Ministry of Transport and Telecommunications. The exchange covers planning, oversight, technology, data management, road safety, sustainability, electric mobility and the financial structuring of contracts.
Carlos Sauer, a technical adviser to the VMT, said Paraguay does not intend to import the Chilean model. The proposal, he said, is to build its own system, adapted to Paraguayan realities and legislation, while also drawing on experience from Colombia and Uruguay. “It is a technical exchange agreement, more than anything else,” he said.
The discussions address the responsibilities of operators and fleet suppliers, implementation mechanisms and the financial rules that will have to support the new model. For Sauer, the exchange could shorten the learning curve and speed up the transition.
The timetable is moving forward, however, amid pressure on the current system. The Metropolitan Passenger Transport Business Center (Cetrapam), headed by César Ruiz Díaz, said in a letter sent on August 20 to Vice Minister Emiliano Fernández that three calculation periods remain pending: January to October 2025; November 2025 to April 2026; and May 2026 onward.
The technical fare is used to determine operators’ compensation and the public subsidy. The companies say the delay fails to account for changes in fuel prices, the economic impact of transfers and the methodology of the National Public Transport Association, leaving insufficient funds for fuel, maintenance, parts, staff and fleet renewal.
In a public statement, the union questioned the gap between the promise of a major reform and the lack of solutions to basic problems such as fare updates and road conditions. The uncertainty leaves users and operators without a clear outlook as the government prepares the first stage of the new system.