Honduras lowers expectations for US$10-20bn interoceanic rail corridor

Honduras’ US$10-20bn interoceanic rail corridor will not be finished during the current government term.

Infrastructure and transport minister Octavio Pineda said that the President Xiomara Castro administration will only be able to carry out prefeasibility studies. Castro will leave office on January 27, 2026.  

“We must talk about what is real, and the reality is that we only have [time] to produce designs, carry out pre-feasibility studies and, should everything go as planned, feasibility studies,” daily El Heraldo quoted Pineda as saying. 

The government recently published a decree that allows Castro’s son and private secretary, Héctor Manuel Zelaya, who heads Confi, the entity in charge of the project, to award contracts without bidding processes.

But Zelaya could use this power only to hire companies for pre-feasibility studies, Pineda said. “If there is no legal framework and rules are not established, it will be complicated. The cost of a study is around US$5mn,” he added. 

Pineda said this administration must ensure that the project continues during the next government by legally shielding it. However, the related bill has not been sent to congress and no submission date has been revealed. 

“They have not said if it will arrive this week. It is a topic that we have not discussed as a fraction and I hope it is transparent and not with direct awards handled by Héctor Zelaya,” Tomás Zambrano, the congressional leader of the conservative Partido Nacional fraction, said. 

Previously, other countries signaled interest in participating in the project.