WORK on the Nicaraguan Canal will start in 2015, although the final route will not be determined until the third quarter of this year says a report from the AP news agency.

The news that the mega project that aims to compete with the Panama Canal is moving ahead so quickly, comes at a time when Panama is facing serious problems with the possible suspension of work on the third set of locks, the major element in the Canal expansion project

The president of the Grand Canal Authority Interoceánico of Nicaragua , Manuel Coronel Kautz said that 2015 will be the start of construction of the work that the Chinese businessman Wang Jing announced last year is likely to occur.
Coronel said the selection of the route "is a complex problem which will be decided later and obviously so important a subject, will have to be decided by the president,[Daniel Ortega].
Colonel explained that the feasibility studies involve three areas: financial, environmental and economic and when they are "advanced enough" that will determine the route.
Most members of the ruling Sandinista Front Channel approved the grant last June, after three days of debate and amid much controversy.
The license for Wang Jing, is to build a canal that exceeds three times the size of the Panama Canal, plus tax areas, including ports on the coast of Nicaragua on the Pacific and the Caribbean, a pipeline that crosses the country, a railway to transport cargo, two free trade zones and an international airport, none of which is good news for the operators of the Panama Canal.