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Rio celebrates 450th anniversary with revamp of port area

Xinhua, February 28, 2015 Adjust font size:

Rio de Janeiro, the second-largest city in Brazil, is to celebrate the 450th anniversary of its foundation on Sunday and the revitalization of the city's port area rises as the greatest present for the residents.

The Port Wonder project, a revamp only comparable to the major urban renovation Rio went through in the 1900s, started in 2009.

A 60-year-old elevated highway which used to dominate the port area has already been dismantled and will give way to a new ground-level avenue and tunnels, as well as a light rail line, a new business area, museums and the largest aquarium in South America.

A 3.5-km-long promenade will connect all of those attractions, making the area more interesting and attractive to both residents and tourists.

The Port Wonder project foresees public investments of 8 billion reais (2.75 billion U.S. dollars) between 2011 and 2026, half of which is to be invested in urban renovation projects, such as the new avenues and tunnels, and new water, waste and electricity networks.

The project is being carried out in a partnership between the public and private sectors.

In Rio, the port area used to be important to the city dynamics, but as the docks were gradually moved to a neighborhood on the upper side of the Guanabara Bay, the region lost its importance and became, over time, the site of several abandoned buildings.

The construction of an elevated waterfront highway in the 1950s destroyed the view of the bay, and the area degenerated further.

When Rio was chosen as the host city of 2016 Summer Olympics in 2009, Eduardo Paes, who was elected as Rio's mayor earlier that year, made the resolution to implement the Port Wonder project.

Though Port Wonder is not officially part of the several modernization projects aimed at preparing Rio for the Olympics, the perspective of a major event in the city was enough to convince the federal government to join in. Endi