The President of Mexico, Felipe Calderon, has recently announced about the upcoming tender for the Riviera Maya airport project, saying it would be the first in Mexico to be built completely with private funds.

Calderon, who didn’t release any information about the bidding procedure, said the approximate cost for the airport project would be close to 3.2 billion pesos ($255 million).

The President had made the statement in Tulum, Quintana Roo state, on one side of a large tourist zone that runs from Cancun to the site of Mayan ruins in Tulum.

The Mexican president said, “The airport would be the first airport in Mexico to have every aspect of its construction concessioned--funded by private investment.”

Further, he said, “The airport in its ‘initial phases’ would be able to handle as many as 3 million passengers per year and would be able to accommodate intercontinental flights.”

According to him, the new airport is required to handle for the betterment of tourism industry that is moving farther away from the present airport in Cancun, which was recently expanded to include an additional runway for simultaneous takeoffs and landings.