Espírito Santo governor Paulo Hartung of Brazil's PMDB opposition party is pushing for the construction of a 7bn-real (US$2.69bn) railway that will connect sea ports in the southeastern states of Espírito Santo and Rio de Janeiro.

The proposed 550km railroad would connect Vitória and Anchieta ports in Espírito Santo to Rio's Açu port in the town of São João da Barra, and would be used for the transport of ore, local paper O Dia reported.

The governor was scheduled to discuss the plan with Rio de Janeiro's economic development secretary Julio Bueno on Friday, the report said.

The project would contribute to Brazil's overall strategy to boost its commercial competitiveness by increasing its international transport infrastructure ranking via logistics improvement plan PIL. Under the plan, some 99.6bn reais has been earmarked specifically to build and improve approximately 11,000km of railways.