The Infrastructure Minister assured this Monday that “there is no reduction in investment” in the railway, but rather “delays in ongoing investment are acknowledged”, after spending planned for this year was some 25% below budgeted targets.
“The projects themselves will be implemented, but not as quickly as we all expected,” Joao Galamba told reporters during a visit to the Operational Command Center (OCC) in Lisbon, adding that there were problems with the implementation of the project. investments.
On Friday, the Ministry of Infrastructure admitted that public investment in railways this year was €189 million less than what was originally envisaged in the 2023 state budget.
“We are watching very carefully, both in dialogue with individual entrepreneurs and with contractors, obviously trying to ensure that this work is carried out as quickly as possible, but at the same time there is no reduction in investment ambitions, there is no abandonment of any investment project,” – he said. – he insisted, emphasizing that all investments planned for the construction of the railway “must be implemented.”
The government official assured that the executive branch will do “everything” to ensure that the investments are “implemented as quickly as possible.”
“Unfortunately, this depends not only on the government, not only on individual entrepreneurs and, often, not only on contractors, since we are also talking about equipment and materials that must be supplied by third parties,” he noted.
João Galamba added that by the end of the year, “a first tender will be issued for the construction of the first section of the TGV, and then the second,” although the second is awaiting the publication of an environmental impact statement.
When asked for new information on the privatization of TAR, Galamba soon reported new developments.
“It is expected that the decree-law will be adopted this week, so news about this will appear when the decree-law is presented,” he said.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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