News

Progress is moving forward at a rapid pace on the extensions of Panama City’s metro system, the first of its kind in the region.

Construction of Line 2 is about 24 percent complete, President Juan Carlos Varela said a few days ago. Eleven of the 16 stations on the second line are already under construction on the 21-kilometer extension, which will connect San Miguelito to Nuevo Tocumen, La Prensa reports.

The civil works section of Line 2 should be completed by Dec., 2017, while the electro-mechanical elements should take another year, President Varela said after touring the construction.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Public Works has published the tender for the fourth bridge over the Panama Canal, which will include an extension of the Metro connecting the city to the west. The approved companies to bid include Consorcio Panama Cuarto Puente (China); Consorcio Hyundai–Sacyr (Korea / Spain); Dragados Sucursal Panama (Spain); Consorcio Astaldi-Daelim (Italy / Korea); Consorcio Cuarto Puente (China); and Consorcio CCB (Brazil), which includes the company Odebrecht, according to CentralAmericaData.com

The tender is scheduled for mid-January and is described as a “mega-project which will expand the high capacity road network between the metropolitan area of Panama City and its interconnections with the west side of the Canal, which are necessary for absorption of the rapid expansion of the city to the West Canal area.”

The latest updates might be relatively minor milestones, but they demonstrate that the government is serious about moving forward with the Metro, which will be a key cog in developing Panama City as a modern capital. It will change the way people live and move around in the city and the government is clearly committed to making it happen.