Mexico has restarted building part of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s flagship tourist train project, an official said Monday, despite a judge overhanging construction on that section on environmental grounds.
A judge indeterminately suspended construction of part of the Mayan Train in the Yucatan peninsula in late May.
The ruling followed a legal challenge brought by opponents, containing scuba divers, who are concerned about the effect of the train on wildlife, caves and water-filled sinkholes known as cenotes.
But construction continued on July 13 under a measure applied in November that deemed the government’s major infrastructure works “national security.”
Under that ordinance, Lopez Obrador intends to shield the train and other projects from lawsuits that have postponed construction, as well as to accelerate obtaining permits and licenses.
The Mayan Train “is a work of national security because of the railroads,” said Javier May, head of the National Fund for the Promotion of Tourism, the government agency supervision the project, on Monday.
The public security and interior departments are resolute to resume construction of the 60-kilometer (37-mile) section amongst the resorts of Playa del Carmen and Tulum, May said.
Lopez Obrador hopes to initiate the roughly 1,500-kilometer rail loop linking popular Caribbean beach resorts and archeological ruins by the end of 2023.
In the May governing, the federal judge cited the “imminent danger” of causing “irreversible damage” to ecosystems, conferring to one of the plaintiffs, the non-governmental group Defending the Right to a Healthy Environment
Authorities found to failed to carry out the essential environmental impact studies earlier starting construction of the section, one of numerous built by the military, the NGO said in a statement.
The government fascinated the decision.
On Monday, environmental organizations Greenpeace and Save Me from the Train separately warned that the Mexican government had restarted work without waiting for the appeals procedure to be completed, which in their opinion both interrupts the law and poses a major risk to the Riviera Maya ecosystems.
Lopez Obrador maintained the railroad not affect the cenotes and alleged that environmentalists infiltrated by “impostors.”