Mexico's Slim to fix collapsed metro line at no cost within a year

Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim's construction firm will repair a collapsed Mexico City metro line at no cost to the government so that it can re-open in a year, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said on Wednesday. The accident last month on an elevated stretch of the busy Line 12, which was built by Slim's Grupo Carso, killed 26 people.

Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim's construction firm will repair a collapsed Mexico City metro line at no cost to the government so that it can re-open in a year, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said on Wednesday.

The accident last month on an elevated stretch of the busy Line 12, which was built by Slim's Grupo Carso, killed 26 people. Lopez Obrador said Slim told him in a meeting on Tuesday that he would cover the entire cost of rebuilding.

"He's going to be in charge of reconstructing the full section, ensuring that it's done with all the necessary safety measures," Lopez Obrador told a regular news conference. "He's going to pay for everything... and it will be finished in 12 months."

Lopez Obrador did not address how much the repairs would cost. Preliminary results of a probe into the accident showed that structural problems triggered the collapse.

Slim told reporters on Tuesday he was "convinced" that the line did not have any problems when it first opened.