$200M pesos allocated, but still no new airport for Playa del Carmen

PLAYA DEL CARMEN – According to Riviera Maya News and Novedades Quintana Roo, after more than 200 million pesos was allocated for a new airport for Playa del Carmen, the project was left abandoned by the previous state administration, according to the Secretariat of Infrastructure and Transport of Quintana Roo (Sintra).

Sintra notes that financial records for the project are being audited as they look for inconsistencies, irregular tenders and missing documents.

Jorge Portilla Manica, head of Sintra says that “There are still more than 100 million pesos more needed to complete the work as projected. What we have detected we have turned over to Public Service. They are providing the corresponding follow-up together with legal resources to address the pertinent complaints about instances that may have occurred outside the law. Most of the projects came to our attention because they lacked many things like logs and transparency in tenders, so for these reasons we are conducting the corresponding audits to see if there was a diversion of resources.”

Money allocated for the project was to include the infrastructure around the landing area, including a terminal building, moving platforms and a fire station. However, although these buildings were still pending, the project was stopped.

The new airport for Playa del Carmen was projected on land near Puerto Aventuras, about 10 kilometers from the federal highway.

Officials said that at least for the remainder of 2017, flight operations will continue at the old aerodrome of Playa del Carmen.

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