MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim’s Grupo Carso said the cost of repairing a collapsed section of a Mexico City metro rail that caused a fatal accident earlier this year could amount to some 800 million pesos ($40 million).
Carso was one of the companies in a consortium that built the metro’s Line 12, and has said it will rebuild an elevated segment of track that collapsed in May, killing 26 people.
Grupo Carso has denied responsibility for the accident.
Speaking in a call with analysts about Grupo Carso’s third quarter results, Chief Executive Antonio Gomez said auditors determined the impact of the repairs to the company would be as much as 800 million pesos, or about 1% of total sales.
He added that the figure was still a preliminary estimate pending instructions from the government on how to carry out the project.
“The cost is not going to be more than that,” Gomez said. “As soon as we have the engineering project completed, we can define the number.”
Mexico’s Grupo ICA and France’s Alstom were part of the consortium that built the full line.
An independent auditor concluded missing bolts and poor welding contributed to the crash, findings confirmed in a separate investigation by the Mexico City Attorney General’s Office.
Earlier this month, Mexico City officials said they were opening criminal cases against people and companies involved in building the metro’s Line 12 and urged the firms to quickly come to settlement deals.
($1 = 20.1870 Mexican pesos)
(Reporting by Daina Beth Solomon and Cassandra Garrison; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)
