THERE's been another delay to the start of construction on the US$50 billion Nicaragua Canal due to new environmental mitigation measures, according to a high-ranking government official.
The project has been wracked by delays and the start of work has been pushed back to until the first quarter of 2016, reports Newark's Journal of Commerce.
Executive director of the Nicaragua Grand Canal Commission, Paul Oquist, said that UK-based Environmental Resources Management, one of the canal's environmental assessment contractors, has recommended four more studies.
"We and [Nicaragua president] Daniel Ortega have made the decision that all studies recommended by the environmental groups have to be undertaken," Mr Oquist said early this week in Washington, DC, at a forum sponsored by the Council of the Americas.
"No stone will be unturned in terms of the environmental elements," he said.
Work on the canal had originally been scheduled to begin in early 2014 and was pushed back to the start of 2015, due in part to delays in identifying the waterway's path.
The 2016 start will include solicitation of bidding briefs for dredging, excavation, the locks, and two new ports to be built as part of the project. The canal will take five years to build.
Scepticism surrounds the project due to its high cost and potential environmental damage. Hong Kong-based project concessionaire HKND Group, led by Beijing-born billionaire Wang Jing, has yet to name investors.
The head of the Panama Canal, whose new locks are expected to begin operation in mid-2016, has said the Nicaragua project is not a "feasible investment". The new locks in Panama, which can presently only handle ships of 5,000 TEU, will allow it to accommodate ships of 13,000 TEU.
Mr Oquist countered claims by environmental groups that 100,000 indigenous people living along Lake Nicaragua would be displaced by the project. A government census study put that number at about 28,000 people, Mr Oquist said, "and we will accommodate them."
WORLD SHIPPING
27 September 2015 - 20:15
Green hurdles delay Nicaragua Canal work as eco-studies stop work
THERE's been another delay to the start of construction on the US$50 billion Nicaragua Canal due to new environmental mitigation measures, according to a high-ranking government official.
WORLD SHIPPING
27 September 2015 - 20:15
Green hurdles delay Nicaragua Canal work as eco-studies stop work
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