This is an old article but of interest as we've been discussing the need for the govt to provide the infrastructure necessary for commercial success-like a railroad from San Diego to Ensenada-
here the government planned on a much larger project including a railroad to the coast south of the mine-a project which is by all accounts dead-despite the fanfare and the parades by the govt- wpuldnt it be nice if for once government actually did something constructive before all the nonsensical political fanfare.
Maybe thats why Mex like India has instituted such stricter requirements for permits to close illegal mines on south mainland border run by cartels-a state within a state where the Mex govt does not control-so they bring out the pencil pushers to promulgate unnecessary red tape-such as CWRN was experiencing at the port as per the 6-25-12 PR-roadblocks which negatively impact legitimate exporters and have no impact on the illegal mines,for which the govt needs boots on the ground.
Also speaks to the relationship between LA/Long Beach ports and Ensenada as we've discussed re the recent Long Beach clerical strike.
Looks like Mex was entreating the USA for the money for the port-thus article touts benefits to the USA. emphasis added in article
Mexican official promotes benefits of Baja port-rail project
He says facility would ease L.A.'s 'bottleneck'
STAFF WRITER
March 1, 2007
The mega container port and rail project planned 150 miles south of San Diego at Baja California's Punta Colonet will benefit the United States as well as Mexico, a top Mexican federal official said yesterday .
 CHARLIE NEUMAN / Union-Tribune
A mineral rights dispute will not derail a Punta Colonet port, said the Mexican federal official overseeing it.
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“This is a very important project. It's a project that should be taken in the interest of both nations. Even though it's on Mexican soil, the United States should be interested in this project ,” said Manuel Rodríguez Arregui, the Mexican subsecretary of transportation overseeing the project.
In a phone interview from Mexico City, Rodríguez discussed several aspects of the port project, including the status of a dispute with a mineral group that has stalled the bidding process, the roles of the federal and state governments, and the impact of the development on residents of the Colonet region.
The new port should relieve increasing pressure on the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach from incoming Asian cargo.
“ The growth rate of trade with Asia requires more infrastructure ,” Rodríguez said. “It's not in both countries' best interest to have a bottleneck.”
Plans call for the Colonet port to be as large as the Los Angeles and Long Beach facilities combined . The new port would occupy nearly 7,000 acres, 97 percent of it water and 3 percent tidelands, Ensenada port Director Carlos Jáuregui González said in an interview last year.
Under a bidding process run by the federal government, private companies will develop and operate the container port and a rail line reaching to the U.S. border. There are three components to the project, Rodríguez said: the port, the administration of the port and the rail line.
By 2025, 6 million to 8 million 20-foot equivalent units, or TEUs – the standard measure for container cargo – are expected to move through Colonet into the U.S. heartland each year. Nearly all the commerce would bypass San Diego.
Future investment in the port and rail line has been estimated at as much as $9 billion. And a city with 200,000 inhabitants is expected to materialize in an area that now is mostly fallow farmland owned by collective agricultural groups called ejidos.
Although the project has sparked interest from terminal operators, maritime companies and rail firms around the world , the bidding has been stalled by a separate business group's claims to mineral rights below the Pacific Ocean floor of the planned port.
Rodríguez said “two serious studies” have indicated the concentration of minerals is not large enough to mine.
“The information I have is the levels are way below a feasible project,” he said. “We're going to resolve it. Believe me, this won't stand in the way for long.
“Their concession is for exploration, not for exploitation,” he said, adding that the issue would be resolved legally.
A principal of the group, Grupo Minero Lobos, could not be reached for comment yesterday.
Sergio Tagliaprietra, Baja California's Secretary of Economic Development, said recently that the port-rail project would be put up for bid within a couple of months, but Rodríguez would say only, “I'm sure we'll resolve it this year.”
While there have been reports that the state government would oversee the rail development, Rodríguez said, “the licitation is federal, not state. . . . Anytime a right-of-way is needed, I'd say we're both responsible. But I don't want to pass on the responsibility to them.”
There also has been speculation that the port development and operating concession would be awarded to Hutchison Port Holdings, a global port developer that operates the Ensenada port and reportedly has a close relationship with Baja California Gov. Eugenio Elorduy Walther.
“I cannot speak to the personal relationship they might have,” Rodríguez said of Hutchison and Elorduy. “However, that will have absolutely no influence on the federal government, and the federal government will grant the concession.”
Rodríguez also addressed complaints by residents of the Colonet area that they have not been kept abreast of plans for the project and how it would affect them.
“The only thing I can say is they're going to be treated fairly, and they're going to do well,” he said.
Rodríguez said he planned to meet soon with leaders of the ejido farming groups.
The meeting will take place tomorrow in Mexico City, said Jesús Lara, a representative for several of the groups. He and several ejido leaders are being flown from Tijuana to the capital today at the expense of the Baja California government, he said yesterday after talking with Gov. Elorduy's personal administrator.
“We agree with this project. We think it will affect the community the right way,” Lara said. “We expect fair treatment from the authorities. But we don't know.”
