"We will be the only region in the country [Center] that will not have an airport infrastructure and we understand that there should be compensation measures, namely at the level of tolls, which is a relevant issue for us, and at the level of some road infrastructures that are missing, namely the IC [complementary itinerary] 8", the 1st executive secretary of CIMRL told Lusa.

On the sidelines of a CIMRL meeting in Alvaiázere, Paulo Batista Santos argued that the Government should look at this region and recalled that the future airport includes "a global investment in the country of 12.6 billion euros", also including a new crossing over the Tagus River and the Lisbon-Madrid high-speed line (LAV).

"This region should be compensated with some investment that we at least estimate to have the dimension within what was the study of the Independent [Technical] Commission, which projected in terms of benefits if the airport were north of the Tagus", said this official, adding that "the country has to work on cohesion".

The mayor of Marinha Grande, Aurélio Ferreira, said that the need to requalify the IC8, in the section between Avelar, in the municipality of Ansião, and Pombal, is something that CIMRL has been claiming "for a long time".

As for the exemption from tolls, Aurélio Ferreira pointed out the Highway 19 (Variante da Batalha) and the sections between Marinha Grande Sul and Leiria Sul of Highway 8.

In the latter case, the mayor highlighted the importance of this exemption to minimize and reduce road traffic on National Road 242, between those two municipalities.

"It is time for the Government to look at us from a different point of view" and for CIMRL not to be left out of the "investment at national level", defended Aurélio Ferreira.

The Prime Minister, Luís Montenegro, announced on the 14th that the Government approved the construction of the new airport at the Alcochete Shooting Range, named Luís de Camões Airport, with a view to completely replacing Humberto Delgado Airport.

The executive also decided to mandate Infraestruturas de Portugal to complete the studies for the construction of the Third Tagus Crossing and the Lisbon-Madrid high-speed rail link.

At the time, CIMRL considered that the Government's decision to locate the new airport in Alcochete, as well as the definition as a priority of the future Lisbon-Madrid LAV "are options that should be accompanied by projects to strengthen the mobility of the Center Region of the country to new infrastructures".

In this regard, he pointed out the "anticipation of the second phase of the Lisbon-Porto TGV, of the connecting section between Soure, Leiria and Carregado (Lisbon), only planned to start work after 2030".

CIMRL also announced that it would promote a meeting of the intermunicipal communities of the Center Region with the Government to assess "the impacts of this decision on territorial cohesion and on the flows of economic development", given that the future airport location and the total deactivation of Humberto Delgado Airport, in Lisbon, "will have strong consequences on population dynamics, tourism and at the level of companies and employment, which requires an urgent response to the anticipation of this new context and respective regional imbalances".

This intermunicipal community includes the municipalities of Alvaiázere, Ansião, Batalha, Castanheira de Pera, Figueiró dos Vinhos, Leiria, Marinha Grande, Pedrógão Grande, Pombal and Porto de Mós.

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