This year’s budget for the Mayan Train has increased 45%

The Mayan Train advances at an accelerated pace in the injection of the budget. The Ministry of Finance and Public Credit (SHCP) detailed in its reports on the economic situation, public finances and public debt that between July and September the resources to be used during 2022 in its construction were increased again: now it has 91,338.1 million pesos, an amount that is 45% higher than the 62,942.1 million pesos that were allocated in the Chamber of Deputies.

The total cost of the 1,440 km is around 230,000 million pesos, although the figure is in the updating stage (the Ministry of Tourism reported in its recent work report that until last June, 92,390.9 million pesos of public resources have been invested).

At the end of the second quarter of the year, an increase in the budget of 24% would have already been reported in the main railway project of the current government, which should be completed by the end of 2023.

In addition, the agency detailed that the accumulated physical progress from the beginning of the program or project until the month of September is 71.24% (at the end of June an advance of 43.87% was reported), a figure that contrasts with what was written Sunday by the President Andrés Manuel López Obrador on his Twitter account:

“From Mérida to Campeche there are 184 kilometers and 37 kilometers of track have been laid, that is, 20 percent. It seems little, but they are not cochinita pibil tacos or dogfish bread. The Mayan Train goes”.

And yes, it goes, despite the fact that work is incipient on sections 6 and 7 by the Ministry of National Defense (Sedena).

Another relevant fact in the information published by the SHCP is that the total investment amount no longer appears, which until June was 167,341. 6 million pesos, since, due to the various adjustments made to the project, the total cost is in the updating stage.

Last June, the Secretariat of Infrastructure, Communications and Transportation (SICT) published the National Railway Program 2022 where it detailed that the investment of the Mayan Train, in charge of the National Fund for the Promotion of Tourism (Fonatur) is 230,000 million pesos ( It should be remembered that in 2018 the first estimate stated that the train would cost between 120,000 and 150,000 million pesos, without considering the modifications that have been made on the fly since that moment).

Asked about this situation, the executive director of Transparencia Mexicana, Eduardo Bohórquez, commented that when the budget of a work increases, as in the case of the Mayan Train, by about 50%, said increase illustrates, in the best of cases , a severe planning problem, and in the worst case, a possible price premium.

“The surcharges can have different explanations, and many of them are related to serious deficiencies in the planning of the project, but when the allocated budget grows in this way, the supervisory authorities must turn on the alerts for possible collusion between officials and suppliers,” he explained. .

This Monday, the Fonatur highlighted in its work progress report progress such as the construction of platforms for the Izamal station in section 3. In their report they do not mention any percentage of physical progress.

alejandro.delarosa@eleconomista.mx