In a decree issued over the weekend, the Mexican government said that in order to finish a train project that is one of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s top goals, Mexico would temporarily acquire private property in the state of Quintana Roo, located in the east of the country.
According to the decree, the government would acquire 165,250 square metres (1.8 million square feet) of land in the municipalities of and Tulum on the Yucatan Peninsula in order to construct the necessary infrastructure for the so-called Mayan Train project.
The constitutional mandate that expropriations may only be made for reasons of “public utility” and that compensation must be offered was noted in the decree that was published in the official gazette of the government. The decree also stated that railways are a priority area for the development of the nation.
The multi-billion dollar project that the president hopes will boost local development has been held up by injunctions, with critics saying that the 1,470-kilometer (910-mile) line is being pushed through without proper environmental impact studies. The president’s hope is that the project will boost local development.
Cancun, a popular vacation destination, will be connected to other tourist destinations on the Yucatan peninsula by a new train.
It has been less than a week since Lopez Obrador declared the train project to be a matter of national security, and now the government has issued a regulation that will go into immediate effect.
