The value of investment in infrastructure considered priority in the Algarve, announced this week by the Government, amounts to 131 million euros.
But, according to the Strategic Plan for Transport and Infrastructure (PETI), approved on April 3 by the Council of Ministers, more than half of this amount, 66 million euros, will be invested by the now privately-owned Ana Aeroportos in improvements at the Airport of Faro.
On the part of the Government, the 65 million that had already been suggested by the region will be invested in the region. Value Added Infrastructures working group (IEVA), the genesis of PETI, with the confirmation that the money earmarked for improvements in the Algarve Line will also serve to make a train connection to the Airport of Faro, a possibility that was already raised in the independent report.
According to PETI, available for online consultation, there are three priority works planned for the Algarve, to be carried out by 2020, identified in the document as «Linha do Algarve (Lagos – Tunes + Faro – Vila Real de Santo António + Connection to the Airport of Faro)", «Portos do Algarve – Improvement of maritime access conditions and passenger and cargo facilities (Portimão and Faro)" and "ANA's Strategic Plan – Development of the Airport of Faro» (page 69 of the document). 55 million euros are earmarked for the first work, and 10 million euros for the second, in both cases public funds. For the third, there are 66 million, whose source is, according to PETI, private.
The IEVA group report, which gave rise to this plan, was discussed in Faro just over a month ago, and at the time the urgent need to requalify the EN 125 was pointed out. On the sidelines of the session, the Secretary of State for Transport said that the priorities of the Government would be those that the region pointed out., despite stressing that the National Road could not be included in this package, as it was leased to private individuals. For this to advance in other ways than an agreement with the current concessionaire, he warned, others would have to be left behind, namely the electrification of the railway.
Rail connection to the airport was one of the requirements
The Government's decision to proceed with the rail connection to the airport of Faro it meets a demand from the living forces present at that meeting, who pointed out as being essential if the work were to be invested in this sector. In the IEVA report, a non-binding document, this possibility was already raised.
On the other hand, the amount destined to improve the conditions of access to the Commercial Ports of Faro and Portimão. The regional agents considered the amount of 10 million foreseen in the IEVA report "clearly insufficient" for the work foreseen.
During the discussion of the report, the amount to be invested did not occupy a central place, but it was not left out of focus. On that occasion, the president of AMAL, the entity that brings together the 16 municipalities of the Algarve, considered that the assumptions on which the independent report was based, which focused largely on tradable goods, harmed the Algarve, which despite being responsible for good part of Portugal's exports, operates with «services and people».
A specificity that has not been valued and that, of the approximately 6 billion investment foreseen in the PETI, only 131 million (66 of which invested by ANA Aeroportos) are destined for the region.
According to PCP deputy Paulo Sá, the slice destined for the Algarve represents «2,2 percent of the total amount», roughly half of the region's weight both in the Gross Domestic Product and in terms of population, which range from «4 to 4,5, XNUMX percent'.
«The Government has been disinvesting in the Algarve for years now. In recent years, in national terms, public investment has halved and, here in the region, it has almost disappeared», he accused, in statements to the Sul Informação.
The requalification of EN 125, "a fundamental work for the Algarve", which the communists believe should be rescued by the Government, the completion of IC 27 (next to the Guadiana), a new bridge between Alcoutim and San Lúcar, in Andalusia and the completion The works in Secondary Schools in the region are an example that Paulo Sá gives of works that should be considered a priority.
also the Algarve Tourism Region requested an urgent intervention on the EN 125, in a reaction to the PETI approval. The president of that entity Desidério Silva, in a public position, defended that «the requalification of the EN125, a road that crosses the entire Algarve, should already be completely finished by this time» and points out three orders of reason for the demand: the «reduction accident rate, mobility in the region and the image of the main tourist destination in the country».
Another official reaction came from the PSD/Faro, which emphasizes “the inclusion, by political decision, of the rail connection to the International Airport of Faro, originally not included, which means a new centrality for the city, the strengthening of the local economy and an increase in mobility alternatives for the Algarve».
"In this circumstance, we hope that the infrastructure that is built, using concessions, will be negotiated with exacting rigor so that national tragedies such as Public Private Partnerships, which mostly harm the country so much, do not repeat," added the social- Farense Democrats.
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