RIO DE JANEIRO - Rio state officials have insisted that the city's metro system -- crucial to moving huge crowds during the Olympics this August -- willbe done on time, after its mayor voiced doubts.
Workers at the Nossa Senhora da Paz metro station, part of Line 4 to the Olympic Village in Ipanema which is still under construction, pictured in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on January 19, 2016
"We are working carefully and on schedule. The expansion work is moving forward and progress is made every day. We will be in a position to deliver the project in July," Rio de Janeiro state Transportation director Carlos Osorio said in a statement Saturday.
There are still 200 meters of rock to be excavated on Metro Line 4, "the biggest urban infrastructure project now under way in Brazil, it added.
Earlier, daily O Globo published what it said was an email sent Friday from Mayor Eduardo Paes to the International Olympic Committee in which he described "a high level risk" that the vital infrastructure project will not make the deadline.
With less than six months until Rio hosts South America's first Summer Olympics, the metro line 4, which would link the Olympic Park and Village in the western Barra district to the city center, is the biggest challenge facing the authorities.
In what Globo said was Paes' email, the mayor calls for an "emergency meeting" and says that an alternative transport plan needs immediate thought.
"I really think we should start studying now and put it to the IOC's consideration," Paes is quoted as saying in the email.
The alternative would be a system of dedicated lanes for express buses, O Globo said.
Currently, travel between the principal Olympic hub in Barra and the rest of the city requires nightmarish road journeys of up to two hours. The metro line would reduce that trip to as little as 13 minutes.
With the project also touted as one of the city's main lasting Olympic legacies, any change in plan would not just risk travel chaos, but be a huge embarrassment.
A spokeswoman for the mayor refused to confirm the contents of the published email, but did not deny that it was genuine. "No one will comment on those internal communications," Claudia Lopes told AFP.
She said Paes "has confidence in the state. The work is going on."
Lopes also denied that there was anything unusual in discussing alternative plans.
"Everything that's being done in terms of works in the city has a contingency plan. That's what you do when you have an Olympics," she said, adding that a plan B for the metro had been drawn up last year.
The Rio 2016 organizing committee did not respond to a request for comment.
- Tight money, tight schedule -
The hitch, O Globo, reported is a delay by the BNDES national development bank in releasing 1.3 billion reais for the completion of a project budgeted at 10.3 billion reais ($2.56 billion).
Paes reportedly met Saturday with local government and business leaders. According to his apparently leaked email, Phillip Bovy, the IOC chief on transport issues, is also due in Rio on Monday.
In January, the consortium building the metro told AFP that construction was 83 percent complete and publicly officials have repeatedly said the job will get done.
But even if all goes well, the 10 miles (16 kilometers) of new metro line are due to open only on July 1, the city government says.
That's just five weeks before the August 5 Olympics opening ceremony in the Maracana stadium, which is right on the other side of the city from Barra district -- as are numerous other important Olympic venues, including the field and track stadium.
The new metro should carry some 300,000 people a day, helping to remove 2,000 cars an hour from the roads, and shortening journey times to 13 minutes from Barra to the tourist area of Ipanema and 34 minutes to the central district.