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The federal government is set to announce the construction of a chain of state-owned gas stations along the route of the Maya Train railroad. Pemex, the National Institute of Social Economy
and the National Tourism Promotion Fund (Fonatur) will announce on Tuesday the construction of gas stations to be known as Gasolineras del Bienestar, or Well-Being gas stations, the
newspaper _El Universal_ reported. The new gas stations on the 1,500-kilometer-long Maya Train route through Chiapas, Tabasco, Campeche, Yucatán and Quintana Roo will be built in conjunction
with community landowners and local authorities. Federal authorities have already begun discussions with _ejido_ (agricultural cooperative) authorities and visited potential construction
sites. The first Bienestar stations will be built in the south of Quintana Roo. One community likely to get one is Sergio Butrón Casas, a sugar cane growing community 30 kilometers west of
Chetumal and just north of the border with Belize. The aim of the stations will be to strengthen the “social and caring economy,” _El Universal _said. The number to be built is expected to
be announced tomorrow. Gabriel Guillermo Arellano Aguilar, a deputy director of Fonatur, which is building the Maya Train, said last month that the communities in which new gas stations are
built will be responsible for managing them. “[It’s] our commitment to provide support to them to guarantee their success,” he said. The state oil company will supply fuel to the Bienestar
stations, which will be Pemex franchises, albeit with a different name. Construction of the new stations will help boost the state company’s participation in the retail fuel market. Out of
almost 13,000 gas stations in Mexico, more than 7,200 operate under the Pemex brand but the company’s sales have declined in recent years as more private companies have entered the market.
President López Obrador announced last month that the state oil company would create a new division to be called Gas Bienestar to distribute LP gas directly to consumers. _With reports from
El Universal _