Sonora’s most important highway, due to its role in attracting tourism, will be remodeled as part of a road maintenance program aimed at granting a concession to private enterprise, according to an announcement made by the state governor on Wednesday, March 11.
The condition for private management, he stated, is that tolls be charged exclusively to visitors with foreign license plates.
“We are going to invest 450 million pesos in the maintenance of the Sonoyta-Puerto Peñasco section. Since that money is already allocated to the highway, it’s welcome, but I prefer the idea, and I will not abandon this until the end of my term, that this highway be concessioned and tolls charged exclusively to foreign license plates. That is, to visitors and not to locals,” the governor said during his weekly press conference.
The purpose of the investment, Durazo Montaño said, is to ensure that the section of road “doesn’t fall into disrepair again” because it carries “the most significant tourist traffic” in Sonora, which amounts to 2.2 million visitors annually, with spring and summer vacations being the peak periods for “Rocky Point.”
“That highway hasn’t been properly repaired; we’ve patched it up, but, with all due respect, just to get by, not to solve the problem,” the governor acknowledged.
This investment, according to reports, is part of a total of 10.285 billion pesos that will be allocated to highways, both federal and state, as well as unpaved roads, with justifications such as tourism, expediting the transport of goods, reducing travel times for local residents, and establishing better security conditions in the desert region.
Of the total amount to be used this year, 7 billion pesos come from federal funds, 984 million from state funds, and 2.3 billion from private initiatives. With this, Durazo Montaño stated, a total of 19.648 billion pesos will have been allocated to this cause between 2021 and the end of this year.
Source: proceso
