The Mayor of Guimarães, Domingos Bragança, said that that municipality and Braga are already working to achieve a connection between the two cities per meter of surface, an investment that could amount to 150 million euros.
“We are already working on this objective”, Domingos Bragança told journalists, at the end of the presentation of six collaborative projects of the Action Plan of the Office of Crisis and Economic Transition in the municipality of Guimarães.
The mayor said that Guimarães and Braga have been thinking about this project “for years” and that there have been previous studies, but stressed that this is the right time to move forward, because “it seems that the circumstances combine all to make it feasible”.
“Either we take advantage of this new community support framework and the Economic Recovery Fund or this project will be irretrievably delayed,” he said.
For Domingos Bragança, “the realization part starts now”.
The dossier will be conducted by the ex-rector of the University of Minho António Cunha, president of through the Crisis and Economic Transition Office of the municipality of Guimarães.
Domingos Bragança said that the progress of the project “will not lose the notion of the Quadrilátero Urbano”, admitting that it could also be extended to Vila Nova de Famalicão and Barcelos.
“I never want to close the network, there is no way to cooperate. We gain strength when we bring cities together ”, he said.
Also present at the session, the Secretary of State for Economy, João Neves, applauded the surface meter initiative, stressing that the lack of mobility instruments leads to the “enlistment” of densely populated territories.
“Mobility instruments like this are something extremely positive and it is clear that this type of instruments will have a very favorable framework, namely in the economic recovery plan that results from the decisions of the European Council”, said the minister.
For this reason, João Neves said he believes that the two municipalities will create the necessary conditions for the project to “go on the ground quickly”.
The idea of the two municipalities is that the metro has stops on the Braga and Guimarães campuses at the University of Minho.
The surface metro project is part of the recovery plan signed by António Costa e Silva to relaunch the national economy and which will be implemented through funds from the European Union.
The Mayor of Braga, Ricardo Rio, has also spoken out this week about the project, saying he is convinced that there are conditions for the connection in the near future.
Rio recalled that the project is supported, “from the first hour”, by the Minister of the Environment.
However, Rio recalled that “practically everything remains to be done”, starting with previous studies to define the route.
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