Japan favored for monorail to Arriajan

A Japanese company will be responsible for the electromechanical portion of line 3 of the Metro, which will connect Albrook and Arraijan, in its first phase.

This is the proposal that the governments of Panama and Japan have agreed upon as part of the Japanese funding for the project that will grant Panama a favorable interest rate reports La Prensa.
Although the agreement has not yet been finalized, Deputy Economy Minister Iván Zarak said the plan is to separate the project from the construction of the fourth bridge over the Panama Canal.
The project has been assigned to the Ministry of Public Works, which has already opened the process of informing companies of the bidding process.
Metro General Manager Roberto Roy said that the electromechanical part includes the monorails, among other components.
“We think that the Japanese system, which is a large monorail, is what we need,” he said. “We have to talk with them and negotiate prices.”
He added that the type of monorail being considered is produced by the company Hitachi.
Roy said that the Ministry of Economy and Finance will make a decision of what financial structure will be used. It is possible a bid could be tendered by the end of the year, but it will most likely happen in 2016.
Although President, Juan Carlos Varela said March 20 that the contract for the project management on line 3 would be ready in 60 days, Roy recently said that it depends on the agreement with the government of Japan.
Line 3 will stretch 27 kilometers and have 14 stations. According to preliminary estimates, after a construction period of five years, it would begin  operation in 2022.