Panama government names best bid for subway project

PANAMA CITY Oct 27 (Reuters) - A $1.447 billion bid from the Linea Uno construction consortium is considered the best value to build Panama City's first subway system, the government said on Wednesday, making it the likely winner of the contract.

The consortium, which includes Brazil's Construtora Norberto Odebrecht and Spain's FCC (FCC.MC), gave a proposal for the nine-mile (14.5 km) subway in Panama City below the government's estimated cost of $1.59 billion for the project.

Linea Uno is competing against Impregilo's (IPGI.MI) all-Italian consortium, Grupo Italiano Metro Panama, which includes Astaldi (AST.MI) and Ghella. The government will announce the winner later on Wednesday. (Reporting by Sean Mattson; Editing by Phil Berlowitz)