The Minister of Infrastructure and Housing, Miguel Pinto Luz, rejected this Friday, 31st, that there is “controversy” about the high-speed station in Gaia, considering the proposal to change the location of the construction consortium “legitimate” and wanting to make a decision quickly.
“I would remove the word controversial. For me it is not controversial. I explained that a consortium, legitimately, presented a proposal. The deputy will not want me, not knowing the proposal, to IP [Infraestruturas de Portugal] being under assessment, the environment [Agência Portuguesa do Ambiente] to evaluate, Civil Protection to evaluate, to discuss with you what is fair or not fair, whether we are going to change or whether we are not going to change”, he said, in response to deputy Angélique da Teresa (IL).
At issue is an alternative proposal for the Gaia high-speed line station, whose concession contract signed with the State defines that it will be in Santo Ovídio, with connections to two metro lines, but which the AVAN Norte consortium (Mota-Engil, Teixeira Duarte, Alves Ribeiro, Casais, Conduril and Gabriel Couto) wants to build outside the planned location, in Vilar do Paraíso, without guarantee of construction of the respective metro extension.
Miguel Pinto Luz was speaking at the joint parliamentary hearing of the Budget, Finance and Public Administration and Infrastructure, Mobility and Housing committees, within the scope of the assessment, in particular, of the proposed State Budget law for 2026 (OE2026), responding to the IL deputy, who had questioned whether, if the process were “to be challenged, the Government has budgetary margin to incorporate these costs or whether it will attribute them to the concessionaire”, because when the project “the public tender was held under an assumption” that “is now being changed”.
“In politics, everything has its time. And the time for evaluating this proposal will be when IP presents its vision to the Government on a legitimate proposal from a private consortium. In due course we will evaluate the impacts, the territorial justices or injustices, the justices or injustices for the other competitors in the competition, the justices or injustices for the PPP model itself [parceria público-privada]”, said the minister.
In response to deputy Carlos Barbosa (CH), he said that within the scope of the AVAN Norte consortium’s proposal “it is not about escaping the 400 meter range” allowed for the route, but rather “longitudinally, it is about changing the station”, adding that both the previous president of the Chamber of Gaia, Eduardo Vítor Rodrigues (PS), and the elected candidate, Luís Filipe Menezes (PSD/CDS-PP/IL coalition), “are both in agreement with the change”, guaranteeing that the Government will not do anything “in disagreement with the local authorities” and aiming for “a station in the right place for Gaia”.
“But I haven’t made any decision yet, neither I nor the Secretary of State [das Infraestruturas, Hugo Espírito Santo]nor the Government”, he guaranteed.
In response to PSD deputy Francisco Covelinhas Lopes, who questioned whether the Government was available to “re-evaluate solutions” regarding the Gaia station, Miguel Pinto Luz guaranteed “close dialogue with parliament, with mayors, with the consortium”.
“At the end of the day we have to ensure that the State is not economically and financially defrauded, that environmentally there are no increased risks, that Civil Protection is comfortable, that the mayors are comfortable”, he said, recognizing that it is necessary to “take quick decisions”.
To deputy Frederico Francisco (PS), who questioned whether “at this moment the Government still has room to decide, because at this moment the only way to have real freedom of decision” is “if the consortium has developed, in parallel, two projects”, Secretary of State Hugo Espírito Santo guaranteed that “of course there is room to decide” on the part of the Government, speaking of a “legal, operational, security and financial” analysis.
The socialist deputy also stressed that “the high-speed station is, by definition, a national infrastructure, it is not an infrastructure that should be decided based on local logic”, warning that if the consortium has only developed a proposal there is “no way for the Government to make a different decision without causing a delay of at least several months” or even “a year”.
PCP deputy Paula Santos also accused the Government of “complacency” throughout the process, with the minister reiterating that “nothing has been changed” yet, but there is only “a proposal from the consortium to change”, and PSD deputy Rui Rocha Pereira, still a councilor at the Chamber of Gaia who voted against the changes to the route, expressed concerns about less tunnel layout and its construction at a shallower depth.