Infrastructure development plans in Cartagena and Bucaramanga

In Cartagena, Spain, the local government's plan to integrate a hotel into the upper floors of the bus station remains unfinalized. Despite a 2024 announcement to use the site for mixed purposes, the current project scheduled for May 2026 allocates the upper floors to the Polytechnic University. The city offers tax incentives of up to 60% on construction taxes for hotel developers and provides 35% more buildability for residential land converted to tourism, yet local maritime business leaders argue the city still lacks the basic infrastructure, such as quality hotel capacity, needed to transition into a major port and interporting hub.

In Bucaramanga, Colombia, Mayor Cristian Portilla has announced a three-stage roadmap to reactivate the SITME mass transit system by 2027. The first phase, ‘transición cero’, is set to begin in January 2027 using 24 collective transport buses to operate on existing trunk and pre-trunk lines. The second phase, planned for March to May 2027, aims to introduce buses provided by the National Government. By the second half of 2027, the third phase intends to expand service to the Metropolitan Area and evaluate multimodal options, including aerial cable cars and bicycle infrastructure.