The electrification works of the sections of the Algarve Line between Vila Real de Santo António and Faro and between Tunis and Lagos will be launched in 2018, to be completed in 2020. Pedro Marques, Minister of Planning and Infrastructure, told reporters today in Faro, that the idea is to hold the first tenders for the work this year, so that they are ready by the end of the current funding period for the European Union.
This is, at bottom, the reaffirmation of a commitment that had been assumed about a year ago, in Portimão. At the time, the opening of the tender for the execution of the projects was announced and it was expected that the interventions could start in the third quarter of 2018.
"The electrification of the rest of the Algarve line is still at the design stage, but we expect that, still in 2018, we will have the first tenders for work abroad, to have everything completed by the end of 2020", he assured, now, the member of the Government.
This will be "an extremely important global modernization, which will allow trains to make direct connections not only to the Algarve, but also to Lisbon, with higher quality rolling stock".
Pedro Marques accompanied Prime Minister António Costa on his visit to the Algarve, this Friday, January 12, to challenge the region's living forces to contribute to the creation of a strategy for Portugal for the 2020-2030s .
The prime minister attended a meeting of the Regional Council, a consultative body of the Algarve's Regional Coordination and Development Commission (CCDR), which includes representatives from the most diverse sectors - municipalities, University of Algarve, associations, unions and other non-governmental entities - and urged its members to submit proposals over the next three months and submit them to the CCDR for consideration during strategy development.
The Government wants to gather consensus around the proposal it presents, in order to achieve at least "a two-thirds majority in Parliament", so that a possible change of Government does not jeopardize the realization of the works that are considered priority.
In other words, the current Government hopes that its successors “do not tear up everything that comes from behind”. The current Government, guaranteed Pedro Marques, followed the policy of continuity that it now advocates, by «complying with the Infrastructure Investment Plan launched by the previous Government».
The electrification of the entire Algarve line, as well as the creation of a train connection to the Airport of Faro, was one of the projects considered a priority by the previous Government, then led by Pedro Passos Coelho, and remained in the plans of the current executive.
Comments