在尼加拉瓜运输货物的运输时间将比巴拿马更长，但总体航行将提供节省。That’s because the route would shave more than 500 miles off a trip from New York City to Los Angeles, a fact not lost on global shippers—including Maersk Line, one of the world’s biggest—that are supporting a Chinese company’s $50-billion proposal to build the canal.

"Building a Nicaragua Canal seems to make good sense,” Keith Svendsen, vice president of the Danish transportation company told industry website ShippingWatch.com earlier this year. What’s more, Panama cannot yet handle the world’s largest ocean vessels, even with its current third-lane expansion, he noted. Russia President Vladimir Putin has also publicly expressed support of the route.

在香港的开发商HKND集团的支持下，支持者设想挖掘和挖掘一条173英里的路线，该路线从Brito的太平洋一侧延伸到加勒比海。这条路线的延伸时间将是巴拿马运河的长三倍以上，但其中大部分将覆盖内陆水道，例如尼加拉瓜湖，这将需要挖泥以容纳诸如集装箱船和油轮等大型船只。

The developer, which last year was granted a concession to build and operate the canal for up to 100 years, has pledged support of the project without government funds from Beijing. Chinese entrepreneur Wang Jing, the firm’s chairman, has also promised to back the canal project with economic rather than geopolitical or military interests in mind.

“我知道你不相信我，”王今年五月告诉路透社。“您相信中国政府在后台提供支持的人。最后，为什么只有王在前面？”

项目合作伙伴目前包括可行性顾问中国铁路建筑公司和首席设计师中国铁路Siyuan调查和设计小组。其他早期项目参与者包括麦肯锡公司和环境资源管理有限公司。

According to HKND, the project will require excavating some 5 billion cubic yards of earth and rock, which it expects to start this December and complete in five years. Chinese manufacturer XCMG has been retained to provide equipment exclusively for that effort, while project officials have been consulting with Australian mining companies to map out methods to chew away at the land’s complex topography.

建筑和工程专家一致认为，对于一个项目，其成本估算超过尼加拉瓜自己的国内生产总值超过四倍的项目，风险是巨大的。

研究全球交通问题的霍夫斯特拉大学教授让·保罗·罗德里格（Jean-Paul Rodrigue）说：“像任何大型项目一样，它们夸大了收益并低估了成本。新利18备用官网登录”“这可能会破裂，但是在某个时间点，我认为它将在财务上崩溃。”本月，尼加拉瓜的人们一直在抗议该项目，担心土地，环境灾难和其他问题。