A FIFA team touring Brazilian stadiums that will stage 2014 World Cup games on Wednesday inspected the arena in the southern city of Porto Alegre and got a pledge that renovation work would resume next week after an eight-month break.
"We are presenting all our infrastructure projects and we guarantee that work in the (Beira-Rio) arena will restart next week," Kalil Sehbe, the sports secretary in Rio Grande do Sul state, told local media.
Officials of Internacional, the football club which owns the stadium, said they were committed to signing a contract before next Tuesday with the Andrade Gutierrez conglomerate to resume the work.
Before that happens, the construction company still must guarantee financing by the Rio Grande do Sul state bank Banrisul, which is to loan $116.5 million equivalent to 62 percent of the cost of the project.
"We are fully confident that the contract will be signed. We are optimistic that the issue will be resolved in the coming days," said Ricardo Trade, executive director of Brazil's Local Organizing Committee.
The renovation of the Porto Alegre stadium should be ready in December.
Trade is part of a team of 40 experts from FIFA and LOC which Tuesday began a six-day tour of six of the 12 cities that will host World Cup Games in 2014.
The six cities are: Sao Paulo, Porto Alegre, Curitiba, Cuiaba, Manaus and Natal.
FIFA has for months complained about delays in renovation or construction of stadiums as well as infrastructure projects for the first World Cup in Brazil since 1950.
Source: AFP
