Engineers and investors say the cost of transiting boxes through the proposed Atlantic-Pacific land bridge would be prohibitive.
Plans floated by Chinese investors to build a rival to
the Panama Canal in Colombia have been dismissed by local port investors and
experts alike.
Documents provided to Lloyd’s List by the Financial Times
illustrate ambitious plans by Chinese investor Global Comprehensive Development
to link Colombia’s Pacific and Atlantic coastlines with a 220 km land bridge.
The route could run from a new greenfield port in the Bay
of Cupica, on the Pacific coast, to a port in the Gulf of Uraba, on the
Caribbean Sea coast.
Oscar Isaza, managing director of TC Buen, which is the
first brownfield port to be developed in Colombia for a decade, dismissed the
proposals on the grounds of complexity, environmental issues and efficiency.
The land bridge concept was included as part of a more
detailed proposal to build a US$5bn-$8bn rail link connecting Buenaventura, on
the North Pacific Ocean coast, to the industrial heartland of Bogot, which is
in the centre of the country, and coal reserves further east.
Panama’s Canal Authority argues that a dry route would
handle a container up to six times before being loaded on a vessel, at a cost
of up to $500 per box per transit, in contrast to the price of $82 per teu per
transit through the canal.
