President Andrés Manuel López Obrador announced that the section of the Mayan Train from Palenque, Chiapas, to Cancun, will be inaugurated on Friday, December 15.
AMLO explained that the construction on section 5 will extend until the end of January 2024, when the section from Cancún to Tulum in Quintana Roo will be completed, and in February will be consolidated the 1,554 kilometers that will connect Tabasco, Chiapas, Campeche, Yucatán and Quintana Roo.
“In the case of section 5, it was more complicated than we imagined, because we are avoiding touching underwater rivers and cenotes. The train will be built over 80 kilometers of double-track viaducts. Nowhere else in the country, there are 80 kilometers of double-track viaducts, and that’s what we are doing here,” he explained.
“We have been very careful not to affect underground rivers and, of course, archeological zones, cenotes. (…) There are wildlife passages that have not been done in the country in all of history; We are talking about the Mayan train, which has more than 500 wildlife passages,” he added.
In his speech, the President added that section 5 is divided into northern and southern subsections, with the first section being managed by military engineers from the Ministry of National Defense and the second section by construction companies that are developing this train in a coordinated manner.
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The President pointed out that the biggest challenge to be met in the coming weeks is the completion of the Boca del Cerro bridge, located in Tenosique, Tabasco, which will cross the largest river in Mexico, the Usumacinta.
This bridge, built by the Mota-Engil company, will be the flagship of Mexican construction, as it has the necessary precision to connect the lines of the Mayan train, he explained.
“If we are lucky, because luck counts in everything, the bridge will be finished in a month and a half and we can go to Palenque and inaugurate the line from Palenque to Cancún,” he said.
López Obrador said that at the same time, that Sedena military engineers are building the Felipe Carrillo Puerto Tulum International Airport in Quintana Roo, which is scheduled to open Dec. 1.
“It is one of the most important airports in the country and in the world; “a great work, a very beautiful, high-quality work,” he stated.
The president also celebrated the sale of tickets for Mexicana de Aviación, the new state-owned airline, ahead of the start of operations scheduled for Nov. 30.
“Tickets are already being sold for the new Mexicana airline. Mexicana planes will fly again and fly to Tulum,” he stressed.