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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | March 2008 
Calderon Announces $420M Highway Project In Oaxaca
 Paul Kiernan - Dow Jones
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Mexico City - Mexican President Felipe Calderon announced Tuesday a 4.5 billion peso ($420.6 million) highway project connecting the southern city of Oaxaca to the coastal resort towns of Huatulco and Puerto Escondido.
The project aims to create a 283-kilometer highway that would reduce the drive from Oaxaca to Huatulco - currently an eight-hour endeavor through rugged mountains - to three hours. It would include the construction of new highway infrastructure such as bridges, tunnels and bypasses, as well the modernization and expansion of existing roads, according to a press release from the Communications and Transport Ministry, or SCT.
The government will finance the project with a combination of public and private investment from the new National Infrastructure Fund.
The government plans to publish the bidding guide for the project next month. It hopes to choose a winner by the end of the year and to complete the project in 2010, Communications and Transport Minister Luis Tellez said.
Calderon said the highway could improve the status of Puerto Escondido and Huatulco as tourist destinations and boost development in Oaxaca state, which is currently among Mexico's most impoverished.
The SCT said it expects work on the project to directly employ 4,000 to 5,000 people, but also touted the highway's future impact on the state's industrial and agricultural activity.
Oaxaca state Governor Ulises Ruiz said the project has been long-awaited and will spur development in several different regions of the state.
paul.kiernan@ dowjones.com |
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