FCC has been picked to take the contract to build Line 1 of the Panama City Metro, as announced by the officials in charge of the transport consortium of the Central-American city, led by its manager, Roberto Roy.

FCC is the citizen service firm leading the consortium. Its partners are Brazilian construction firm Odebrecht and the French company Alstom, which will provide the rolling stock. The consortium emerged from the economic and technical bid evaluation as the winner, ahead of another contending consortium made up of the Italian companies Impregilo, Ghella and Astaldi, featuring rolling stock from Ansaldo Breda.

Line 1 has a budget of 1,446 million dollars (more than 1,000 million euro). This includes civil-engineering work and rolling stock. The Panama Metro will be 14 kilometres long with 11 stations, some of which will be above ground.

The underground system design and construction proposals were submitted on 30 August and were assessed by the fifteen professionals who made up the evaluating committee.

The schedule set by the client calls for work on the Metro line to begin in January next, once the deadlines set by law for appeals has expired.