Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said on Thursday that the armed forces would build a new airport he plans for Mexico City at a military air base in the town of Santa Lucía north of the capital.
In a morning news conference, López Obrador said that funds for the project’s construction were already part of the 2019 budget his team presented at the weekend.
According to the assistant secretary of Finance, Arturo Herrera , the land that will be used for the construction of the Santa Lucía Airport extension is owned by Mexico’s Ministry of National Defense (SEDENA) .
“The existing airport in Santa Lucía is owned by the military, which means that any construction, adjustment, or operation conducted therein will be operated by SEDENA.”
“The budget increase for SEDENA has more to do with transport than with military issues,” he explained.
The government has assigned a budget of MXN$15 billion for the construction of the Santa Lucía airport, according to the Ministry of Finance.
President Andrés Manuel López Obrador had promised that the builders that had won contract tenders for the construction of the International Airport in Texcoco would participate in the construction of the Santa Lucía Airport.
At the Texcoco airport, construction companies Coconal and Pavimentadora VISE were in charge of building runway 2, whereas Carso Infrastructure and Construction, GIA+A; PRODEMEX; and Peninsular Compañía Constructora were in charge of runway 3 . The Ministry of National Defense was in charge of soil levelling and geotechnical instrumentation in runway 6 .
The construction of the Texcoco airport continues as the Federal Government conducts a repurchase of bonds for USD$1.8 billion , issued by the Mexico City Airport Group Trust during the past administration. The federal government has claimed that the construction of the Santa Lucía airport will start in January .
dm