Playa del Carmen, Q.R. — A popular beach area in central Playa del Carmen is set to become the mainland home for a power station for Cozumel. The municipality’s Blue Flag beach Playa 88 has been awarded for CFE use.
The 200 square meters of beach area was handed over by federal officials for CFE (Comisión Federal de Electricidad) use for the construction of underground power cables that will run to the island of Cozumel.
The Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (Semarnat) approved the CFE land use for the ongoing underwater cable project earlier this week. Federal officials made the decision final through a late week publication in the Official Gazette of the Federation (DOF).
In that publication, the federal government, through the Ministry of the Interior, specified that access to Playa 88 in Playa del Carmen has been designated for the service of the CFE along with 200 square meters of beach.
The public beach area will be used for “the underground construction of a transmission line with submarine cable corresponding to the LT Playa del Carmen-Chankaanab II project,” the document reads.
It will be approximately one month before the beach access will be closed to the general public. According to the document, once the CFE begins work, public beach access will not be allowed.
Lourdes Várguez, the Secretaría de Medio Ambiente Sustentable y Cambio Climático and Zofemat for Solidaridad, says the municipality will do everything possible to fight the decision and keep the beach.
The CFE is planning to build a station from that point of the mainland of Playa del Carmen to run a 30.6 kilometer underwater power cable to the island of Cozumel.