Honduras News - Daily News about Honduras

The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and Honduras’ tourism board (IHT) expect to call for bids “in about two weeks” for Honduras’ Tela bay mega-infrastructure project, said IHT official Maribel Díaz.

Officials were hoping to advance on the process by end-2005, but planners were sidetracked by a slight change in project designs and the change in government administrations, she said. The country’s center-right President Manuel Zelaya took office end-January.

IHT is now putting the final touches on the project’s bidding documents, which are “almost done,” according to Díaz.

In the meantime the pre-qualified entities continue to be five: Sweden’s Peraarsleff, Italy’s Astaldi, Spain’s Constructora Hispánica and Obrascón Huarte Lain, and Costa Rican-Spanish consortium M&S Internacional-FCC.

Construction would kick off a few months after the reception of bids, Díaz said.

The US$108mn Tela bay tourism project includes the construction of a potable water treatment plant, a water distribution network and 20km in new road accesses in Honduras’ northern town of Tela. The government-sponsored infrastructure works go hand-in-hand with the Los Micos beach and golf resort, which is being developed by private investors.

The IDB provided a US$35mn loan to help finance the project.

By Christian Molinari