With the modification, Cancun will lose its direct connection to Yucatan and will only have one branch to Tulum.
The federal government modified a section of the Mayan Train, which left Cancún out of the original circuit.
The route connected the Yucatecan city of Valladolid with Cancún and from there it started to the south, to Puerto Morelos, Playa del Carmen, and Tulum.
Now, with the change, the road will go from Valladolid to Tulum, with an intermediate station in the community of Cobá -where there is an archaeological zone-, and from Tulum a branch will be built towards Cancun, informed Alejandro Varela Arellano, legal director of the Fund. National Tourism Promotion (Fonatur).
Since Andrés Manuel López Obrador presented the project of the Mayan Train as a promise of his presidential campaign, he indicated that the goal is to take tourism that reaches Cancun and the Riviera Maya to the rest of the Yucatan Peninsula, but now Cancun will lose its direct connection towards Yucatan
By participating on Monday in the Bilateral Conference on Infrastructure Mexico-United States, organized by the Mexican Chamber of the Construction Industry (CMIC), Varela Arellano said that the modification will allow savings of 5,500 million pesos.
In addition, the train route will no longer use the Kantunil-Cancún highway, owned by the ICA construction company, with which Fonatur was in negotiations.
“We are officially presenting the change of line, it may be that later another Valladolid-Cancún branch line is made, if there are gauges. It has nothing to do with negotiating (with ICA), but with technical, economic and social development issues. Not because of conflicts in the negotiation with the company, “he said.
Previously, the CEO of Fonatur, Rogelio Jiménez Pons, had reported that he was negotiating with ICA to change part of his concession of the Kantunil-Cancún highway to be used in a section by the Mayan Train.
At that time, he specified that the railway infrastructure required 218 of the 241 kilometers that this highway has, and that it could even be agreed with the company that it built the Gulf 3 stretch of the work (from Valladolid to Cancun), of 268 kilometers.
Video: Mayan Train, the most important tourism project for the Ministry of Tourism
However, Varela Arellano confirmed that an alternative route was chosen, which will help to reduce 55 kilometers and save approximately 100 million pesos per kilometer.
“We increased an archaeological zone that will have a development, which will be the area of Cobá, but we will be very careful with the tangible and intangible cultural heritage. But we’re going to an area of Quintana Roo with the Yucatan border that needs a lot of development, “he said.
He clarified that with this change there are no problems in the rights of roads, there are already state and federal highways, and high voltage lines, although environmental and social management studies will be carried out.
In total, he added, there will be seven tenders that will be carried out for sections of the Mayan train track, one for the convoy communication system, as well as for the purchase of locomotives and stations.
He specified that the concession will be for Fonatur and Fonatur will hire an expert train operator; In addition, the firm that builds them will be able to operate the transport, he said.
For this year, the tenders for Selva 1 Palenque-Tenosique-Escárcega, as well as Gulf 1 Escárcega-Campeche and Gulf 2 Campeche-Mérida-Izamal will be launched.
Source: notimex, forbs
The Mazatlan Post