All the budgetary burdens of the independent technical commission, which is due to present a strategic assessment of five or more possible solutions for the new airport in the Lisbon region by the end of 2023, will be borne by the National Civil Engineering Laboratory (LNEC), the Minister of State revealed yesterday. Infrastructure, Pedro Nuno Santos, at the end of the Council of Ministers meeting. LNEC will also be responsible for providing “all logistical and administrative support”, and for handling the contracting of any purchases of services necessary for the technical and supervisory committee to function.
Regarding the deadlines for the start of the technical committee, Pedro Nuno Santos stated that the presidents of the High Council of Public Works, the Council of Rectors of the Portuguese Universities (CRUP) and the National Council for Environment and Sustainable Development have 30 days have time to indicate to the Prime Minister the name of the General Coordinator, who in turn, and on a proposal from CRUP, will designate the six coordinators of teams and projects who will study six different thematic areas: accessibility of infrastructure and transportation; airport planning; accessibility by road and rail; environment and strategic environmental assessment; economic and financial and legal analysis.
The work of the technical committee will be followed by a monitoring committee, chaired by the High Council of Public Works, in which the mayors of the municipal councils of the areas of potential sites of the future airport will be represented. So, he stated, in this group “will be not only the mayors of Alcochete, Benavente, Lisbon, Loures, Montijo and Santarém, but also other locations that the technical committee deems suitable to add to the strategic environmental assessment”. This committee also includes several entities such as the presidents of the associations of engineers and economists, the president of the National Council for Environment and Sustainable Development, the president of the Coordination and Development Commission for the Lisbon Region and the Tagus Valley and the president of LNEC .
Salomé Pinto is a journalist for DInheiro Vivo
Source: DN
