The federal government has assigned two contracts worth more than 642 million pesos (US $28.2 million) to supervise construction of the Maya Train railroad project.
According to information on the government’s online transparency platform CompraNet, the National Tourism Promotion Fund (Fonatur), which is managing the $8-billion project, assigned one contract for 299.9 million pesos ($13.2 million) to a consortium made up of the companies Ayesa México and Geosol.
The companies will be required to carry out “technical supervision” and conduct quality control checks of work on the 227-kilometer section of track between Palenque, Chiapas, and Escárcega, Campeche.
A consortium led by Portugal’s Mota-Engil and the majority state-owned China Communications Construction Company won the construction contract for the section after presenting a 15.5-billion-peso ($680.8-million) bid.
Fonatur awarded another supervision contract worth 342.4 million pesos ($15 million) to a consortium made up of the companies Cal y Mayor Asociados; Multidin; Ari Arquitectura e Ingeniería; Planeación, Operación y Desarrollos de Infraestructura; and Infraestructura Peninsular.
Those companies will supervise work and ensure plans are followed on the 222-kilometer section of track between Escárcega and Calkiní, Campeche.
A consortium controlled by billionaire businessman Carlos Slim secured an 18.55-billion-peso ($814.7-million) contract to build the section of track to Calkiní, a town 90 kilometers southwest of Mérida, Yucatán, and about the same distance northeast of Campeche city.
Both supervision contracts will have a duration of 29 months, according to information on CompraNet.
Fonatur has also called for bids for a supervision contract for the section between Calkiní and Izamal, Yucatán. That contract will be awarded on Thursday next week.
In addition, the tourism fund called for bids for a contract to provide technical assistance for the drawing up of the master plans for all seven sections of the 1,500-kilometer railroad, which will run through the states of Tabasco, Campeche, Yucatán, Quintana Roo and Chiapas.
President López Obrador inaugurated construction of the project last week, while it was revealed this week that tourist trains that ply the route will be powered by diesel rather than electricity in order to keep operating costs down.
López Obrador pledged that the project will be finished by October 2022. He says that the construction and operation of the railroad will spur economic and social development in Mexico’s long-neglected southeast.
Source: Milenio (sp)
