EscucharTEGUCIGALPA - The president of Honduras, Carlos Flores, named a commission that will promote, together with El Salvador and Nicaragua, the construction of a "Central American dry canal" between the Atlantic and the Pacific.
The executive commission of the Presidential Program of Investments, composed of officials and businessmen, was installed officially Monday night in a session headed by Flores, said the minister of the Presidency, Gustavo Alfaro, on Tuesday.
"It has been said that the project of the dry canal would unite El Salvador and Nicaragua with the Honduran port, Puerto Cortés," he said.
He explained that the project foresees the construction of highways that will link ports of El Salvador and Nicaragua situated on the Pacific coast with Puerto Cortés, on the Honduran Atlantic coast.
The commission will also promote, together with El Salvador, the construction of the hydroelectric dam, El Tigre, which should generate 700 megawatts and will be located in a border zone.
The project will also foment other hydroelectric projects that two North American companies will build in the region of Patuca. The plan has been rejected by indigenous peoples and environmentalists, who assure that the project will cause ecological damages to the region which is part of the Mesoamerican biological corridor.
The commission will also stimulate programs of investment in tourism and agricultural production, especially the enlargement of the area of banana cultivation, indicated Alfaro.
Last October in Tegucigalpa, Salvadoran and Honduran businessmen signed a commitment to establish the dry inter-oceanic canal, that will surely compete with the Panama canal and will require an investment of more than $1 billion, including roads and port installations.
The signing of the agreement by business foundations of San Salvador and Tegucigalpa was guaranteed by the presidents, Carlos Reina, then president of Honduras and Armando Calderón of El Salvador.
Promoters of the project from both nations assure that the road will offer the transport of cargo between the Pacific and the Atlantic and vice versa, the reduction of costs and the saving of time compared to the Panama Canal.
They assert that the construction requires international as well as Central American investment; but, according to the promoters, its operating costs will be covered, in the case of the highways, by applying tolls, and in the ports by service rights.
Business foundations of Honduras and El Salvador agreed in October in Tegucigalpa on the creation of an Inter-oceanic Committee of Central America to stimulate the private sectors of the region and finance the project.
