Mexican telecom magnate Carlos Slim has been awarded the contract to build the second stage of the Tren Maya, one of the flagship projects of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
The work will be carried out by a consortium made up of two of Slim’s companies: Carso Infraestructura y Construcción and Fomento de Construcciones y Contratas.
The second 235-kilometer stretch of the tourist train route will run from the towns of Escárcega to Calkiní in the state of Campeche.
The Tren Maya will cross the Yucatan peninsula, covering 1,500 kilometers from the archaeological zone of Palenque in Chiapas, to Cancún in Quintana Roo. The entire project has an estimated cost of $US7 billion.
The first section of the Maya Train, between the towns of Palenque (Chiapas) and Escárcega (Campeche), was awarded last week to a group of companies led by Mota-Engil of Portugal.