Much has been talked about the dredging of the port, but beyond that, the Mazatlan Integral Port Administration seeks to promote a plan that also includes all basic infrastructure around the development of it, thus creating a binomial between the city and the port
Mazatlan, Sinaloa (Informational Reaction) .- For years it has been talking about the dredging of the port, which since the administration of the former president of the Republic, Enrique Peña Nieto, had been promised. However, to date, the Integral Port Administration (API) of Mazatlan proposes a comprehensive project that contemplates a whole series of basic infrastructure with which it can “do more, with fewer resources”.
Sylvia Ernest Hernandez, general director of the API in Mazatlan, revealed that the initial project required 12 billion pesos, where the first stage of this began with the dredging of the port to -15 meters, which required an amount of one thousand 300 million of pesos.
However, this expensive project was planned to meet the bulk cargo of minerals, because at that time it was believed that this type of merchandise was the one that was going to move the economy in the port, but the reality was another: the port of Mazatlan it was strengthened in other lines of business such as the flow of containers and vehicles, the arrival of cruises and fishing.
“The initial project envisaged an investment of 12 billion pesos, what happened to that project? That attended to cargo that at that time was expected for the port that were mineral grenades, but none arrived in Mazatlan (…) So what was done? Nor is this project rejected, but it was revalued, adapted, improved so that with less money (can be) create more for what we need: patios, dredging, and connection to the land, “he explained, after adding that the first proposal it would take a long time to be finalized.
The current proposal that the API has in favor of port development involves creating a binomial between the city and the port, thus combining the dredging works with basic infrastructure, which would result in a project evaluated at 3 billion pesos.
Among the changes that would occur, it is proposed to dredge at -14 meters (and not at -15 as was originally intended) along 3.5 kilometers of the navigation channel (1 km more than previously contemplated). As part of the new infrastructure seeks to enable 80 hectares that serve as patios that have a connection to the land, because currently only have 16 hectares, which are insufficient, since there are no spaces to place cranes that can serve, for example, a container terminal.
“In commercial matters, the development of port infrastructure of high quality, sustainable and that foresees patios is foreseen (…) that is to say, a dredging will not generate bigger ships without a patio; a dredging and a yard are not going to generate a greater load, if it does not have a ground connection for a railway road connectivity, that goes out to the main connecting roads “, he emphasized.
Even between the API and the City Council, there have already been rapprochements, as the commune has expressed its intention to create a dry dock and a dock, for which, the director of the Port Administration stated:
“Changing a port to another side is not a project that is born from API, it is not a project with which API agrees, it is not a project in which the port community agrees; the API project implies that in the next 5 or 6 years we can prepare the basic infrastructure with fewer resources than had been anticipated in previous years for dredging and for the filling of patios, so that we can allocate these terminals for a container terminal or one of hydrocarbons or one of automobiles, depending on the demand of the port “.
It also contemplates the tourist aspect
To create the duality between Port and City, the port development includes a whole series of jobs involving the tourism sector, since it has already been thought to recover areas such as La Lonja, which is a seafood market, where it is sought to give a value-added enabling it with bars and restaurants, to turn it into a gastronomic area and a point of reference for those who arrive in this way.
Likewise, it is intended to build a performing arts center, a yacht club; the cruise terminal, business centers, and hotels; even taking advantage of the Island of the Stone with a nautical museum; creating then “a tourist product that does not exist”.
Ernest Hernandez explained that currently Mazatlan “is a second generation port, we serve as interface or point of transfer between maritime commerce and land trade, but we lack many things: we lack logistic activities zones, dry ports, a port community formed, quality services, both tourist and cargo, lack of organization, but above all a synergy between all users, the port community and between the city; that is why we are a second generation port, “he said.
He added that the port is at 70 percent of its capacity and, therefore, it is urgent to guarantee its expansion, because only in the tourist aspect, the upward trend of the arrival of cruise ships requires such an extension.
Source: reaccioninformativa
The Mazatlan Post
