Manuel Coronel Kautz isn’t a man who’s easily deterred. Good thing. Because as head of Nicaragua’s Canal Authority, he’s seen the $50 billion, Chinese-backed project suffer setback after setback. The latest: 12 months of construction delays on a key port just as financial turmoil in China deepens speculation the funding won’t come through.

Three years after President Daniel Ortega awarded the 170-mile long project to Hong Kong-based HKND Group, topographical and archaeological studies are nearing completion, Kautz said. … The viability of the project, which would be 300 miles (480 kilometers) from the century-old Panama Canal, has been questioned by shipping experts and engineers since Ortega first announced his plans and the Central American country’s legislature awarded the contract without accepting competing bids.

“I think the canal only exists in Ortega’s head,” said 24-year-old university student Yader Sequeira, who lives in the town of El Tule near the canal route. “Absolutely nothing is happening.”

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