The communists believe that the use of the Beja airport and better accessibility to it is essential. It also guarantees that the solution to follow in Lisbon is Alcochete.
The parliamentary leader of the PCP ruled out on Monday that the solution for the new Lisbon airport go through Beja, supporting the Alcochete solution, but stressed that the “potential” of the airport infrastructure of that Alentejo city must be taken advantage of.
The solution for the Lisbon airport, for the Portela airport, has been identified and agreed upon for a long time: the solution of building the airport in stages at the Alcochete shooting range”, said Paula Santos in statements to journalists at the station Lisbon Beja train station, in reaction to the announcement, on Saturday, that the Independent Technical Commission (CTI) will also evaluate Beja and Alverca as possible locations for the new Lisbon airport.
Shortly after making a train trip between Pragal and Beja, which marked the beginning of the PCP parliamentary sessions, Paula Santos pointed out that “since the privatization of ANA, acquired by Vinci, obstacles have been placed upon obstacles to the development of the infrastructures” In Portugal.
“Da Vinci’s interests are quite different. [do interesse nacional] and they have put obstacles to that same development”, he stressed.
Despite ruling out the possibility of Beja becoming part of the Lisbon airport solution, the communist parliamentary leader considered that the airport in that location “has potential in itself”, which should be taken advantage of and “put at the service of development of the region and the country”.
The Beja airport has enormous potential due to its characteristics. It has a role that can contribute a lot to the development of the region, of the district, to the development of the country, be it in the transport of passengers, merchandise, or in the development of aeronautics”, he stressed.
Paula Santos appealed not to “waste” the infrastructure and argued that the creation of “a branch that allows the connection” of the Beja airport with the railway is “a very important aspect.”
“Investment in accessibility is essentialeither by rail or by road. (…) The connection between the airport and the railway [é um] element also for the development and for the increase of the productive activity in this district”, he stressed.
The communist parliamentary leader recalled that, last Thursday, the Assembly of the Republic discussed and approved a draft resolution of the PCP that underlined “the need to take advantage of the potential of the Beja airport.”
“The PS made changes, eliminating important aspects of our project, but we would like to highlight this importance that is of the airport use and that PCP initiative which led to the issue being debated in the Assembly of the Republic”, he emphasized.
One of the coordinators of the CTI advanced, in an interview with Lusa, that Beja and Alverca entered the list of possible locations for the new Lisbon airport, after the proposals made to that commission, responsible for the strategic environmental evaluation.
We are going to analyze other options that, meanwhile, have also come to us as proposals […] and the resolution of the Council of Ministers provided that, that we decided what other proposals we would analyze and, therefore, we will also analyze, at least more Alverca and more Beja, which have already reached us”, said, in an interview with Lusa, Professor Rosário Macário, which is part of the CTI that will carry out the strategic environmental assessment for the expansion of the airport in the Lisbon region.
The resolution of the Council of Ministers approved last year defined the constitution of a CTI to analyze five hypotheses for the solution of the Lisbon airport (Portela + Montijo; Montijo + Portela; Alcochete; Portela + Santarém; Santarém), but provided that they could be added Other options .
Source: Observadora
