Mexico’s tourism board Fonatur started works on four of seven stretches of the US$6.7bn Maya rail line, one of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s (AMLO) signature projects.
At his morning press conference on Friday, AMLO said he would kick off works on the fourth stretch in Quintana Roo on Monday.
And Fonatur’s legal head, Alejandro Varela Arellano, told daily El Economista on Thursday that rehabilitation on 900km of the 1,500km freight and passenger railway had already started.
Stretch one was awarded on April 23 to a consortium led by Mota-Engil México for US$525mn and stretch two went to Carlos Slim’s Operadora CICSA and FCC Construcción for US$771mn on April 30.
Stretch three was awarded on May 15 to a Spanish-Mexican consortium led by Azvi and GAMI for US$417mn.
And the 225km fourth stretch will reportedly be awarded to Mexico’s ICA Infraestructura as it holds a concession to operate the Kantunil-Cancún highway that runs parallel to the stretch. Investments were not disclosed.
Works on stretches four and five include widening works for the Kantunil-Cancún highway and the Cancún Tulum highway.
Although a tender for the fifth stretch has not yet been launched, US investment company BlackRock already received a 10-point advantage for turning in an early proposal to widen the Cancún-Tulum highway, Fonatur director Rogelio Jiménez Pons told daily Milenio recently.
Stretches six and seven will be built by defense ministry Sedena after it completes the US$3.4bn Felipe Ángeles international airport (AIFA) in Mexico state, according to the president.
Fonatur’s Varela also said that smaller companies will benefit, because several consortiums work on the railway.
“From the beginning, we knew that this project had to be done not only by one company, but by many because in some cases we have learned that these large companies take advantage of the local ones; they squeezed the prices, and they left without paying up.”
Source: https://www.bnamericas.com/en/news/works-on-mexicos-us67bn-maya-train-kick-off