The Ministry of Public Works (MOP) has already put 148 of its 241 projects under the Chile Despega Plan out to tender. That represents 61% of its portfolio. Louis de Grange, Minister of Public Works and Transport, provided the update this Friday.
According to CNN Chile, the published contracts represent an investment of nearly $214,880 million. The ministry's full portfolio includes an additional investment of US$ 400 million.
The Chile Despega Plan is the program President José Antonio Kast announced on September 28 to revive the economy and employment. The ministry's contribution is one of its components.
A published tender does not yet mean construction is underway. First, companies submit bids, then the ministry reviews them and awards the contracts, and only then does construction begin. De Grange said they expect to "complete the tendering process for all these projects this year" and also begin construction in 2026.
The first concrete step has already taken place. On Thursday, the ministry awarded the first contract in the portfolio: a borehole (a drilling operation to extract water) for the Peñasmo Rural Sanitation Service in Calbuco, Los Lagos Region, for $103 million.
Jobs matter most to people's finances. The ministry estimates that the full portfolio would create around 23,000 jobs. Of these, 12,800 correspond to projects already out to tender. The sources do not specify how long those jobs will last or which regions they will be concentrated in.
De Grange described the initiatives as "labor-intensive", with rapid budget execution, advanced engineering and a satisfactory recommendation (RS), the technical approval the state requires before investing.
The works will be spread across all regions and several ministry departments. The Roads Directorate will build roads and bridges. The Port Works Directorate will handle rock revetments, coastal promenades, piers and ramps. The Airports Directorate will build runways and helicopter landing sites.
These will be joined by hydrometric and meteorological infrastructure and monitoring systems for the General Water Directorate, as well as wastewater and drinking water treatment plants for Rural Sanitation Services.
The pace stands out. The ministry published the 148 tenders in just three weeks. That represents about 15% of all the tenders the ministry publishes in a normal year.
The Director General of Public Works, Joaquín Dagá, attributed the pace to coordination between directorates and regional secretariats, and to 10 extraordinary measures to speed up contracting. These include maximum deadlines for calls for tenders, bid opening and evaluation, and a combined technical and financial review.
De Grange presented the figures after the launch of the National Strategy for Investment-Driven Labor Demand (Enadi), led by Kast at the workshop for the future Metro Line 9 alongside Labor Minister Tomás Rau. The ministry has 93 tenders left to publish before the end of the year.
