Guatemala City’s new mass transport system Transurbano is scheduled to start operating by end-April, the country’s deputy communication, infrastructure and housing minister Estuardo Villatoro told BNamericas.

Transurbano was originally set to start operations in March but a legal battle over the free prepaid smart cards – called Siga – delayed the process.

The bus company decided to stop distributing the cards after the court granted a provisional amparo action requested by the country’s human rights ombudsman Sergio Fernando Morales.

Morales said the company was asking for too much information from consumers as, to receive the card, people had to present identification and a utility bill.

However, Morales has since withdrawn the case, Villatoro said.

“There was misleading information regarding the documentation people had to provide to receive the Siga card,” Villatoro said. “The agreement is that people must present their identification and a utility bill to corroborate the information, which can be a phone bill or an electricity bill,” he added.

The card is personal and non-transferable and, if you lose it, the system will give you back a card with the amount of money you had on it, according to Villatoro.

By year-end, 3,150 buses are expected to be circulating in the capital city, providing services to 1.2mn inhabitants.

The new bus fare is 1.10 quetzales (US$0.13) per trip.

The government purchased the bus fleet using a US$450mn loan from Brazil’s national development bank BNDES. The debt will be paid by Guatemala’s national government and private firms.

The full interview with Villatoro will be published in this week’s Infrastructure Perspectives, for subscribers only.

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