Mexican tourism board Fonatur will launch two tenders for the construction of the US$7.5bn Maya train’s stretch five next week after it declared the first contest void on September 8.
Alejandro Varela, legal head of the board, told the webinar Tianguis Turístico on Thursday that the stretch that will link vacation hubs Cancún and Tulum in Quintana Roo state has generated the most interest.
The stretch will include the widening of the 120km Cancún-Tulum highway from four to six lanes and the construction of a double-track rail line between the carriageways, he said. The original contract did not include the widening works.
“The section that has generated the most interest in the tourist environment is Cancún-Tulum, which will be put out to tender next week and consists of widening the highway, expanding it from four to six lanes, and laying the ground where the double-track railway will run,” Varela said.
Fonatur, which is responsible for the Maya train project, first launched a tender as an 18-year PPP contract to modernize, rehabilitate and operate the Cancún-Tulum section of federal highway 307, which links Cancún with state capital Chetumal. However, it was not specified that the highway project would be part of the fifth stretch.
Rogelio Jiménez Espriú, the board’s head, then told BNamericas in an interview last month that the highway project tackled the stretch’s most important elements – the roads, bridges, overpasses and the basic structure of the rail line – and that another tender would be launched in 2021 for the rail line itself.
But on September 8, the board announced that the only bid it received, from a consortium led by US investment firm BlackRock and Mexican construction company Promotora y Desarrolladora Mexicana de Infraestructura (Prodemex), was “not solvent.”
The offer was for 14.9bn pesos (US$693mn) without taxes and it included a financing plan for 11.6bn pesos under which the government could have paid in annual installments of 2.2bn pesos with an initial down payment of 3.3bn pesos. The total investment for the project would have been 16.7bn pesos with taxes included.
Also, the first tender that Fonatur launched for the Cancún-Tulum highway section did not mention the widening works, just the modernization and maintenance of the route. So it is possible that the board restructured the project to make it more appealing for bidders.
BlackRock is likely to bid on the highway project again as it received a 10-point advantage from Fonatur earlier this year for presenting an unsolicited proposal. But the new technical changes made to the project could attract more participants.
Source: https://www.bnamericas.com/en/news/mexico-to-relaunch-maya-train-stretch-5-tender-early-october
