6-year funding guaranteed for Mexico's isthmus corridor

The development plan for Mexico's Tehuantepec isthmus region, one of the priorities of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO), is guaranteed to have funding during the president's six-year term, according to the transport and communications ministry (SCT).

The plan will require an initial 8bn-peso (US$414mn) investment, with works scheduled to begin this year.

Among projects in the plan count the rehabilitation of the freight railways and the highway connecting the coastal cities of Salina Cruz on the Pacific coast, and Coatzacoalcos, in the Gulf state of Veracruz.

Both city's ports will also receive an upgrade, as will the refineries in Salina Cruz and Minatitlán, west of Coatzacoalcos.

The infrastructure components of the trade corridor are expected to be completed in 2020, boosting the economic potential of the region and thus attracting private sector investments. Due to the area's strategic location and in what AMLO calls "an attempt to protect the nation's sovereignty," the current plan will be financed with domestic resources only.

The transport and communications ministry will be in charge of all of the infrastructure works, except the enhancing of the refineries. It will also be tasked with installing a fiber optic network in the region.

In the case of the railway, existing stretches will be upgraded while some new sections will be built. This will require a 645mn-peso investment this year alone. Once the railway works are complete, travel times for freight cargo will drop from eight to five hours.

Some 1.5bn pesos will be invested this year in port modernization, 7bn pesos will go to modernizing the highway, which includes the installation of the fiber optic network.

For this year, some 250mn pesos will be allocated to upgrade a section of the Salina Cruz-Coatzacoalcos highway, which links the cities of Acayucan and La Ventosa.