A Mexican conglomerate has hatched an ambitious plan to create an economic and logistics corridor running more than 7,000km from the Mexican state of Sinaloa up through the US to Winnipeg in the Canadian prairies.
The idea is that industries will spring up along the route that add value to the goods moving through it.
The route contemplated bends eastward to take in Dallas, Tulsa, Oklahoma, and Chicago, Illinois.
The conglomerate, Caxxor Group, is aiming to raise $3.3bn initially to fund the scheme, called "T-MEC".
Anchoring the corridor would be a major new port at the city of Mazatlán, on Mexico’s Pacific coast, estimated to cost $1bn.
This port would be able to handle 8 million containers a year, making it the second largest port in the Americas after Long Beach in Los Angeles.
Around the new port would be industrial parks and railways.
Carlos Ortiz, Caxxor’s general director, told Mexican news site Milenio that several investors had shown interest in the project, which he expected to start in the second half of 2021.
To get goods north, some $600m would be needed to build a railway over the Sierra Madre Occidental mountain range that hems Sinaloa in.
Ortiz said several operators have expressed interest in funding the project.
The corridor is expected to take at least five years to complete.
Image: An aerial view of Mazatlán on the Pacific coast (Dreamstime)
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