Eleven firms show interest in the first Phase 1 survey tender

The SNDF opened a tender to survey structures, measure buildings, and inventory forest along the Panamá–Divisa corridor. Eleven firms attended the pre-bid meeting. Preliminary estimates point to up to 700 affected properties and a working corridor about 60 m wide.

Background & context

This is the tender that measures the project's first real footprint on private land, distinct from the design and financing studies. Up to 700 properties along a roughly 60-meter working corridor from Panamá City to Divisa is a meaningful number for a region spanning both the dense outskirts of the capital and agricultural land in Coclé.

Eleven firms at the pre-bid meeting is a healthy field for a technical survey contract, suggesting Panamanian engineering and surveying firms see this as credible, ongoing work rather than a one-off study destined to sit on a shelf. What isn't yet public is the compensation framework: how affected owners will be valued and paid. That framework, not the survey itself, is what will determine whether this phase goes smoothly.