Nicaragua’s alternative Panama canal plans

Plans for an inter-oceanic canal in Nicaragua have been announced by Hong Kong-based HK Nicaragua Canal Development Investment and its local arm HKND. The US$40 billion project involves the construction of an alternative to the Panama Canal. The proposed 280 kilometre, which aims to compete with the Panama canal, would connect Nicaragua's Caribbean and Pacific coasts. It includes the development of a deepwater port at each end of the canal, an oil pipeline running alongside it a dry canal for the transpo
July 24, 2014 Read time: 2 mins

Plans for an inter-oceanic canal in Nicaragua have been announced by Hong Kong-based HK Nicaragua Canal Development Investment and its local arm HKND.

The US$40 billion project involves the construction of an alternative to the Panama Canal. The proposed 280 kilometre, which aims to compete with the Panama canal, would connect Nicaragua's Caribbean and Pacific coasts. It includes the development of a deepwater port at each end of the canal, an oil pipeline running alongside it a dry canal for the transportation of cargo via freight rail lines, a new airport, highways, free trade zones, and a tourist complex.

Once under way, construction would take at least ten years and could generate 40,000 jobs and double the country's GDP per capita.

However, the plans have raised concerns from several environmental organisations. HKND has yet to carry out an environmental impact study and environmental reports say the route calls for the removal of 400,000 hectares of forests and wetlands, encroachment into indigenous communities and the contamination of Nicaragua's largest freshwater source, Lake Nicaragua.

Related Content

  • Bogota's metro tender delayed
    July 25, 2014
    The tender for Bogota, Colombia’s decades-long and much-delayed first metro line has been pushed to the first quarter of 2015 following expansion of the US$3.6 billion project. The original project included the construction of the first line of Bogota’s 26.5 kilometre long metro, which would have 28 stations and be used by around 600,000 people a day. This is the first of four lines planned to be built in the next 30 years. The metro will complement the existing urban transport system by handling 50 p
    Read More
  • Funding shortfall for US Interstate upgrades
    May 11, 2012
    Andrew Bardin Williams investigates tolling on the federal Interstate system as maintenance and upgrade requirements increasingly outpace funding The I-95 corridor through North Carolina is one of the most heavy trafficked interstates in the US, seeing upwards of 46,000 vehicles per day in some stretches-and North Carolina’s Department of Transportation (NCDOT) estimates this number will to rise to 98,000 vehicles per day by 2040. Along with the rest of the federal interstate system, the North Carolina str
    Read More
  • Huawei develops the next generation of wireless communications
    October 25, 2024
    Huawei has developed and already deployed high-integrity and richly featured cellular communications solutions for the railway sector which are based on the new FRMCS standard and 4-5G technology
    Read More
  • Egis Projects-Sanef consortium sign second major ORT operations contract in Canada
    April 2, 2012
    A consortium composed of Egis Projects and Sanef has signed a contract for the operation of the Port Mann Bridge open road tolling (ORT) project in the Metro Vancouver Area, Canada. The largest transportation infrastructure project in British Columbia history, it includes doubling the capacity of the bridge and widening the highway from Vancouver to Langley, a distance of 37 kilometres. Once complete, it will reduce travel times by up to 30 per cent, and save drivers up to an hour a day. The new bridge will
    Read More

Highlighted Content