The project which the Chinese concessionaires have dubbed the Nicaragua Interoceanic Grand Canal is still very much in the preliminary stages, with no definite word of a start date for construction.
The plan is to build a 278 km canal – three and a half times as long as the Panama Canal – from Punta Gorda on the Caribbean coast to the mouth of the River Brito on the Pacific. Cost of construction has been put at US$ 40 to 50 billion and it will take six to 10 years to complete.