Porto Mayor Rui Moreira today said it was a “strategic mistake” if the Santarém option is chosen to host the new international airport in Lisbon, deeming the distance to the capital “excessive”.
Rui Moreira spoke to reporters after attending the New Airport: Time to Decide conference taking place today at the Fundação Oriente in the capital.
“There is no airport in any European capital at a distance of 85 kilometers. Montreal, Canada was the only city it was in and ended up giving up the place because people weren’t traveling,” the mayor explained.
Rui Moreira stressed that he “has nothing against Santarém”, but believes that the airport, located 85 kilometers from Lisbon, would be a “strategic mistake”.
This would be, in his opinion, “excessive distance”.
The independent mayor emphasized the need to “maximize the ‘hub’ in Lisbon” and thus stated that his position is similar to that of Lisbon Mayor Carlos Moedas (PSD) in terms of the importance of the airport at Portela + 1, flowing with less traffic and a new one closer to the city Lisbon.
“Montijo has some environmental constraints, but there is no investment that it does not have,” Rui Moreira emphasized, highlighting the waterway and proximity to Portela as an advantage of this location.
Rui Moreira also recalled that there is a concessionaire who says that if Montijo is an option, “build it free of charge for the state budget”, stressing that a new facility in Alcochet or Santarem will not solve the Lisbon problem, only if it were “a big international airport, three already existing in the country are disappearing.”
Like his colleague Carlos Moedas, Moreira defends the urgency of building a new airport, given that by the end of 2023 there are political conditions for a solution to be found.
“There seems to be an important factor here: the leader of the SDP said he wants a constructive solution. It is useful to have and realize that negotiations are underway between the government and the opposition party,” he explained, given that “the political situation is simpler today than it was three years ago” when Rui Rio was the leader of the SDP.
Carlos Moedas, for his part, recalled that a decision for the new Lisbon airport has been under discussion for 52 years, “as long as its age”, stressing that a decision should be made in 2023.
“We must have a decision, we must make a decision. Lisbon cannot exist without an airport, and I am both concerned about the environment and the economy. Lisbon desperately needs an airport,” Carlos Moedas told reporters on the sidelines of the conference. .
The mayor of Lisbon also said that the discussion “still has a lot of emotions”, emphasizing the need to “get out of the political trenches and think about Lisbon and the country” as far as the Lisbon International Airport is concerned.
“There will be those who like it and those who don’t. [da decisão]but we can’t keep polluting the city the way we are. Without a new airport, we are also endangering our tourism,” he stressed, stressing that he believes there are political conditions to find a solution.
“I will use my pressure and political capital to make this happen. The conditions are met. The majority government and the largest opposition party, the PSD, are cooperating in this decision. Although the government has the majority [absoluta]we are here to support,” he added.
Asked about a statement from a colleague in Porto who said that if Santarén could not rely on the North, Moedas reiterated that now is not the time to “take a stand” on the location of the airport, reinforcing the need for “a solution”.
At a roundtable with two mayors, Joao Cravinho, former Minister of Equipment, Planning and Land Management, argued his preference for the north bank option.
“I won’t miss it and I have good reasons,” he said, adding that he has a presentation of 18 “slides” that prove the option for Lisbon’s north coast, in Ota, costs “less than three billion.” than the solution on the south bank covering a larger population concentration.
João Cravigno was the protagonist of a moment of tension when he accused the technical commission of the National Laboratory for Civil Engineering (LNEC), which made the decision for Alcochete in 2008, of not including the constant “intentionally the costs of the level crossing” in the project, citing what made “two or three more documented comparisons” which he later submitted to the LNEC but received no response.
The audience was attended by the then president of the LNEC, Matthias Ramos, who demanded that the former minister stop “lying”.
“The third crossing over the Tagus was introduced [no estudo], stop lying. This way of speaking whenever there is corruption is a serious offense that you must correct. He has already done this several times. Prove that there was no independence in the project,” replied Matias Ramos.
The technical commission that will carry out the strategic environmental assessment of the new Lisbon airport will consider five solutions and may even propose more if it wishes.
We are talking about a solution in which Humberto Delgado Airport remains the main airport, and Montijo – as a secondary one, in which Montijo gradually becomes the main airport, and Humberto Delgado as a secondary one, the third – in which Alcochete completely replaces Humberto Airport Delgado, the fourth in which this airport will be the main airport and Santarém as an addition, and the fifth in which Santarém completely replaces Humberto Delgado.
CPR (MRE) // MLS
Lusa/The End
Author: Portuguese
Source: CM Jornal
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