The mayor of Benavente, Carlos Coutinho, considered this Tuesday an “important day” for the region and assured that the municipality is ready to host the future airport of Lisbon.
Carlos Coutinho (CDU) also stressed the importance of the work of the independent technical commission (CTI) so that, more than 50 years after the announcement of the BBC hypotheses, a “good political solution” can finally be reached. Shooting range (Santarem district), as well as Vendas Novas (Evora district) as the best options for the location of the new Lisbon airport.
“This will be important to what the political decision will be because the need to move to a new airport is inevitable,” he said, stressing that the work of the scientific and technical community was credible, impartial, transparent and “in-depth.” “.
“I will say that, as was seen, the Shooting Range took first or second place in most of the objects assessed, and, therefore, global analysis points to the Shooting Range as the most favorable for the construction of a new airport,” he added.
The Air Force Shooting Field, also known as the Alcochete Shooting Field, actually “does not have a single square centimeter in the municipality of Alcochete”, since it is located mainly in the parish of Zamora Correia, in the municipality of Benavente, as well as on a small area. part in the parish of Caña, already in the municipality of Montijo (Setubal district), explained the mayor, who hopes that now “this confusion” will be cleared up.
The municipality of Ribatejo, with an area of approximately 521 square meters, is located on the border of the Santarém district with the Metropolitan Area of Lisbon (AML) and less than half an hour from the entrance to Lisbon.
“At the moment we should have about 600 hectares of land available for economic activity and, in fact, the municipality, even without an airport, has a very significant growth dynamic. We have grown over 70% in business over the last decade. volume and we have grown by more than 300% in exports. […] We have no doubt that infrastructure such as the airport will be of great importance not only for Benavente, but for the entire region as a development factor,” he said.
Carlos Coutinho also stressed that even with the airport, he wants a model of “balanced and sustainable development” and assured that the municipality is ready for this.
“I have always defended my territory, my land in its identity, and its identity is very connected with the territory itself, with environmental issues, with the forest, with agricultural land, and therefore this is something that I don’t want to lose either. I don’t see the municipality having any other characteristics. Now our territorial planning allows us to continue to have great potential in our urban perimeter for growth in both housing and economic terms.”
The Alcochete and Vendas Novas shooting ranges in Évora are two options that an independent technical committee has identified as viable for a new airport along with Humberto Delgado until it is possible to move to a single infrastructure, it was announced on Tuesday.
According to the preliminary report of the independent technical committee responsible for the strategic environmental assessment of increasing airport capacity in the Lisbon region, which examined nine options, the solutions of Humberto Delgado + Campo de Tiro de Alcochete are viable until only Alcochete is left with a minimum of two runways traffic, as well as Humberto Delgado + Vendas Novas, until only Vendas Novas remains, also with at least two lanes.
The Humberto Delgado + Montijo and Montijo hub options were classified as “impossible for an intercontinental hub” for aviation, environmental and economic-financial reasons “due to their limited ability to expand air connectivity.”
Humberto Delgado + Santarem and Santarem as a single airport “are not an option for aviation (air navigation) reasons,” CTI noted.
The report will be submitted for public consultation within 30 working days, after which CTI, after assessing the “rationality, merits, feasibility and technical significance of each of these contributions in light of the critical decision factors,” will make a decision. final report.
With the preparation of this final report, the CTI’s mandate will be completed.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
I’m Dave Martin, and I’m an experienced journalist working in the news industry. As a part of my work, I write for 24 News Reporters, covering mostly sports-related topics. With more than 5 years of experience as a journalist, I have written numerous articles on various topics to provide accurate information to readers.