News

The Panama government isn’t wasting time in building out the Panama City metro. This week a consortium of two Japanese companies and one from France was named to carry out a feasibility study for the master plan of the metro expansion.

The Nippon Koei Lac-Sytra consortium includes Japan’s Nippon Koei Co. Ltd and Nippon Koei LAC Inc. along with France’s Sytra, according to coverage in El Capital Financiero. The group beat out 26 companies that expressed interest in the job.

The $150 million project will be financed by funds from the Inter-American Development Bank, based on a 2014 deal, the publication reports.

As much as anything, the deal signifies the continued focus of the Panama government on completing the metro network, which will connect Panama City to the east and west neighborhoods in the years ahead. A new bridge planned over the Panama Canal is scheduled to include space for the metro expansion.

At the current pace, the metro network will be completely operational by 2035 and will handle 1 million passengers a day, according to government estimates.

The new consortium will bring some heavyweight credentials to the project. Tokyo-based Nippon Koei Co. Ltd. has worked on more than 3,000 infrastructure projects around the world in 135 countries. The French company, Sytra, is a specialist in rail lines and it is partially owned by Régie Autonome des Transports Parisiens (RATP) and the Société Nationale des Chemins de fer Français, SNCF (National Society of French Railways).

Meanwhile, in other metro news, contractor Alsom has started delivering 70 new metro cars which will be used to expand the trains on the existing first line of the metro. The 20 current trains will be expanded from three to five cars, and six trains will be added to the line, as part of a €130 million deal, the International Railway Journal reports.

The new five-car trains are expected to debut in January.