Infrastructures Minister Pedro Marques said in Parliament on Monday that proceedings would soon be launched for the €70 million project.
Minister Marques was in Parliament to talk about next year’s State Budget and the projects his bureau has lined up within the budget for 2018.
He highlighted a number of rail projects, a sector in which the Minister said he expected to invest around €360 million in total, both on infrastructures and new trains.
Imminently, he said, in the next 90 days, “the first big project” will be launched (the Évora-Elvas line), a route which is lacking, to connect Portugal to the rest of southern Europe.
“In this case we are talking about the construction of a new line; it is clearly the most important investment that we have to make in the Sines-Caia corridor and we will launch it in the next 90 days with this first 70 million euro tender already in line,” said Pedro Marques, adding that the tender “to modernise the line between Elvas and the border” will be awarded next year.
The government also expects to award a tender for work on the Covilhã-Guarda line, in Beira Baixa, worth 65 million euros, soon, “so that the work can begin in the first quarter of 2018.”
The minister also pointed out that in 2018, upgrades are planned for the Northern Line, namely between Alfarelos and Pampilhosa and between Ovar and Gaia; interventions on the Minho Line and the Viana-Valença section are scheduled for the first quarter, along with levelling works for the West Line.
Pedro Marques pointed out that, within the framework of the Ferrovia 2020 programme, some 800 kilometres of infrastructure will be worked on, either through construction or contracting, in 2018.
New trains will be purchased, in a process that is being sped up, while existing trains will undergo in-depth maintenance to modernise them.