MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Ortega discloses blueprints for projected Nicaragua Canal

Traffic through the Panama Canal is slow and there are no alternatives, Ortega underlined

Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega Monday launched the blueprints for a 445-kilometer long canal through his country linking the Caribbean SSea with the Pacific Ocean, which would be an alternative to the existing transoceanic path in Panama, where the United States has a key say.

”Every day it is more complicated to pass through Panama (...) Nicaragua is ready to contribute with this passage that will give greater fluidity to maritime transport, to commerce and we invite you all. I am sure that even North American businessmen would be interested in the canal“, said Ortega during the XVII China-Latin America and the Caribbean Business Summit in Managua, which was attended by dignitaries from 29 countries, particularly investors and businessmen from Beijing.

”We are seeing the difficulties that the Panama Canal has, they have problems with the water, in terms of fluidity, the capacity for ships to pass. So traffic is slow. There are no alternatives,“ Ortega underlined while recalling that the United States had already intended to build a Nicaragua canal back in 1854. ”We are going to send them more information, because many studies have been made, since [the] one made by the U.S. Navy Corps of Engineers in 1866,“ Ortega assured.

This new initiative projects a route consisting of four segments, considering the construction of a deep water port in Bluefields, located 370 kilometers southeast of Managua. The contract for its construction was signed Monday between the Chinese company CAMC and the Nicaraguan Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure.

The first segment of the new canal route in Nicaragua starts in Puerto Corinto on the Pacific, extends to Lake Xolotlán in Managua, passes through the central region of the country, and ends in Bluefields.

”Nicaragua can offer for the benefit of the people, for the benefit of commercial activities, for the benefit of the growth of the economy in all our countries and that we have better conditions for peace, for stability, for security, and with this we can put an end to misery, we can put an end to poverty, we can live with dignity,” Ortega also underlined. (Source: Sputnik)