QCOSTARICA – The Secretaría Técnica Nacional Ambiental (Setena) – Environmental Technical Secretariat, has approved environmental feasibility studies presented by APM Terminals for the construction of a port terminal dedicated to container ships at Moín, in the province of Limón.
After a long process affected by intense pressures from various sectors, especially trade unions, the environmental impact study was approved by the Environmental Technical Secretariat, giving the green light to the start of construction by the concessionaire APM Terminals.
According to company reports, construction could begin in less than a month.
Paul Gallie, manager of the company APM Terminals, told Nacion.com that “… ‘It was absolutely worth it, at the end of the day we did have to wait much more time than we should have, but this gives people confidence about the quality of the environmental impact studies’. ”
The ministro de Obras Públicas y Transportes (MOPT) – minister of Public Works and Transportation, Carlos Segnini, added “… Today at the meeting of the Consejo Nacional de Concesión (National Council Concession) they will look at this issue in order to define when to start construction of the mega port for containers and to verify the progress of construction work on the access Route 32 linking the entrance to the new port. ”
The Dutch firm, APM Terminals, intends to build an artificial island of 80 hectares for loading and unloading containers off the cost of Moín, north of the city of Limón.
The Terminal de Contenedores Moín (TCM) – Moín Container Terminal, would be operated under concession by the foreign company for the next 33 years.
The Sindicato de la Junta de Administración Portuaria y Desarrollo Económico de la Vertiente Atlántica (Sintrajap) – dock workers union of the autonomous state agency in the Caribbean coast, has opposed the arrival of the Dutch firm, calling it “unfair competition” because APM Terminals would will handle only containers, while Japdeva only mixed loads.
On October 22, the union paralyzed the Limón docks for 10 hours until the police intervened and reactivated the operation of the docks.
Trade unionists remained for nearly a month on strike to demand that the government delete clause 9 of the concession contract which stipulates that only APM Terminals can load or unload containers.
Source: Nacion.com
