This Thursday, the Council of Ministers approved the permit for the construction of a metro line that will connect the municipalities of Loures and Odivelas with the surface (Purple Line), a total investment of 527.3 million euros.
According to a statement released this afternoon by the Ministry of Environment and Climate Action, led by Duarte Cordeiro, financing for the future Violeta line will be through the Recovery and Resilience Plan (390 million) in the form of loans and funds. from the state budget (137.3 million euros).
“The investment includes the design and construction of railway infrastructure and the supply of rolling stock, as well as surrounding urban redevelopment in the two municipalities served, Loures and Odivelas,” the note said.
The line’s financing model became a source of contention between the government and the councils of Loures and Odivelas in Lisbon district, as authorities wanted the municipalities to take on part of the investment.
Speaking to the Lusa Agency, the President of the Lures City Council, Ricardo Leão (PS), welcomed the government’s decision, stressing that “the conditions for moving forward are being met.”
“Finally, we have already closed all the necessary funding for this work, which is so important for the municipalities of Loures and Odivelas. If the position is taken, there is a guarantee that the competition can finally be opened and this work can begin,” the mayor said.
In this sense, Ricardo Lean, who on Wednesday during an executive meeting announced his unwillingness to finance part of the construction of the Violeta line, praised the model found by the guardianship.
“I never hid it. There was a disagreement here regarding the funding model, in which I, as well as the mayor of Odivelas, understood that there should be the same treatment as, for example, Metropolitano do Porto. Fortunately, the Government also followed the same line,” he said.
In a conversation with Lusa, Odivelas City Council President Hugo Martins (PS) emphasized the importance of this work for mobility in the municipality.
“Today is a very important day for the expansion of the metro. This is a very important investment in the lives and quality of life of the people here in the north of Lisbon,” he emphasized.
Like his colleague from Lores, Hugo Martins welcomed the government’s chosen funding model as it “does not burden the budgets” of municipalities. “We managed the municipalities of Loures and Odivelas together with a joint effort that did not burden the municipal budgets and did not put more financial pressure on the municipalities’ accounts,” he noted.
The Violeta line will be a light metro system consisting of 17 stations and approximately 11.5 kilometers long. Nine stations will be built in the municipality of Loures, serving the parishes of Loures, Santo António dos Cavaleiros and Frielas, with a length of 6.4 km.
In the neighboring municipality of Odivelas, eight stations will be built to serve the parishes of Povoa de Santo Adrian and Olival de Basto, Odivelas, Ramada and Canesas, with a total length of 5.1 km.