Chinese-led consortium wins bid to build Mexico's 1st bullet train project

MEXICO CITY - A Chinese-led consortium has won the bid to build Mexico's first high-speed train project, local media reported Monday.

Mexico's Ministry of Communications and Transport (SCT) announced at a press conference that the group, which includes the China Railway Construction Corporation (CRCC) and a handful of Mexican construction firms had been granted the contract.

The 50.8-billion-pesos (about $3.7 billion) project involves building a bullet train line to connect the national capital of Mexico City with the growing industrial hub of Queretaro to the north by 2017. Upon completion, the bullet train service would cut travel time from about two and a half hours to less than an hour, with trains traveling at a maximum speed of 300 kilometers per hour.

"Today the results of the bidding on the Mex-Qro High-Speed Train were released (and) the winner is China's CRCC company," SCT head Gerardo Ruiz Esparza said via Twitter.

The SCT's director of Rail Transport, Pablo Suarez Coello, told reporters that "China's Exim Bank will finance 85 percent of the project," the daily Excelsior said.

Mexico's President Enrique Pena Nieto announced at the start of his term in 2012 that his government would promote several rail line infrastructure projects to help boost the economy and improve communication.

A second high-speed train is being considered to link Mexico City with Toluca, the capital of the industrial central State of Mexico.