| The proposed canal
would be a mammoth project. The railroad would stretch from
Monkey Point on the Caribbean coast to the Pacific coast near
Pie de Gigante passing through Granada, Masaya and Rivas and
crossing just above the northern shore of Lake Nicaragua. That’s
over 370 kilometers of railroad, not to mention the two deep
water ports needed to be constructed at either end.
The project claims that it will be able transport up to 800,000
containers in the first year of trade, helping the Nicaraguan
government earn $35 million. What’s even more intriguing
is that Bosco talks about an actual oil pipeline that maybe
put in place. It is understood that oil from Venezuela, which
doesn’t have a pacific coast, would be shipped up to
Nicaragua, then be pumped along a pipeline that reached the
Pacific coast before being put back onto a ship and transported
off to Asia and China. Even without a pipeline that runs simultaneously
to the track, Bosco claims that oil can still easily be transported
via the rail road.
The ‘dry canal’ project will undoubtedly bring
in a vast amount of wealth to the nation and similar benefits
of it can be predicted from Panama’s experience with
their wet canal. The extra money will help develop Nicaragua
even further as a tourist destination as well as a trade nation,
although assuming that the next feasibility study is passed,
work will not commence on the ‘dry canal’ project
until January 2009. |
