YEREVAN, DECEMBER 17, ARMENPRESS. Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has launched the Maya Train - an ambitious $7.4bn project to build a railway through five south-eastern states, BBC reports.

During an inauguration ceremony he said that the project will create thousands of jobs.

The 1,525km railway will link Palenque and the tourist resort of Cancún on the Caribbean coast.

But opponents warn it could damage the region's biosphere.

But President López Obrador dismissed environmentalists' concerns, promising that "we won't uproot a single tree".

Construction is expected to be completed in four years.

Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan