The Council of Ministers approved the expenditure and reprogramming of charges related to Metro do Porto investments, namely the Rubi Line (Santo OvÃdio - Casa da Música) and the metrobus
In a statement released on Tuesday, and quoted by Lusa, it said the Council of Ministers approved, electronically, "the expenditure and reprogramming of multi-year charges for investment by Metro do Porto, SA, under the Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR), specifically, the expansion of the Metro do Porto network (Casa da Música - Santo OvÃdio) and the BRT Line (Boavista - Império).
The document makes no reference to values but, last Friday, the president of Metro do Porto, Tiago Braga, said that the public tender for the Rubi Line would be launched this week, and that the cost of the construction had risen to 450 million euros, compared to the 299 million euros initially foreseen in the PRR.
Regarding who will pay the extra cost of the work, the Minister of the Environment, Duarte Cordeiro, did not indicate an immediate solution, but said that he will assess "what are the best conditions for this funding: if it is the RRP, if it is subsidised loans, if it is the value of the Environmental Fund or the State Budget".
In Porto, the stations planned for the Rubi Line are Campo Alegre and Casa da Música and in Gaia are Santo OvÃdio, Soares dos Reis, Devesas, Rotunda, Candal and Arrábida, with the construction of the new bridge over the Douro River also planned.
Regarding the metrobus, this is a hydrogen bus service that will circulate in a dedicated channel in Avenida da Boavista and together with the remaining traffic in Marechal Gomes da Costa, costing 66 million euros, fully funded by the PRR.