Pamplona (EFE).- The Ministry of Transport expects to have mobilized around 300 million euros by the summer in the TAV project in Navarra, the General Secretary of Infrastructures of the Mitma, Xavier Flores, stated this Monday at the conference “Challenges 2023 -TAP” held in Pamplona.
Flores explained in his speech at this forum, organized by Diario de Navarra and DN Management, that the Zaragoza-Castejón section will go public in two or three weeks.
In addition, the works on the Ebro viaduct in Castejón will be ready to start this summer. For this, this week Adif-Alta Velocidad will proceed to the economic opening of the works contract, in bidding for 68.3 million euros, which will enter the final phase for its award.
Also in the middle of this year, the contracting of the works of the Tafalla-Campanas section will begin, with a budget of around 240 million euros, with which the new investment programmed in Navarra by Mitma will exceed 300 million euros, with financing through the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan.
Spain, “anchored” in 4-5% of rail transport
“Everything is going to go ahead”, highlighted Flores, who pointed out that the connection with the “Basque Y” through Ezkio or Vitoria is still being analyzed.
Flores has assured that the Ministry is “happy and proud” of the progress of the works, although he has pointed out to the businessmen present at this event that “our success will not be complete if you do not get on the train, if you do not get your merchandise” .
In this sense, he has commented that in Spain “we are anchored” in 4 or 5% of freight transport by rail in relation to the total and has stressed that the Atlantic Corridor, in which the Navarrese section is part, is “an opportunity ” for the country.
Adif bets on the Noáin intermodal
The director of Adif Logistics Services, Luis Moreno, has highlighted the need to take “a qualitative leap” and increase the operational capacity of the Noáin intermodal station, so that it “gives service to the entire sector” of transport.
Moreno has pointed out that 70% of the companies that distribute their products by road “do not know how to get on the train” due to lack of information and these difficulties are corrected “by approaching and approaching the sector”.
Volkswagen highlights the success of rail transport
The manager of Programming and Control of Production/distribution of Volkswagen Navarra, Pablo Mendívil, has also taken part in this conference, who has asserted that the distribution of cars from the plant by rail has been “a success story”.
Thus, he has indicated that, if in 2010 between 25 and 30% of cars were sent this way, in 2022 a record of 56% was reached.
Mendívil has affirmed that Volkswagen Navarra remains at these percentages, but they want to increase them.
Chivite: The TAP will benefit citizens and companies
The conference was inaugurated by the President of the Government of Navarra, María Chivite, who has shown the “firm and unquestionable” commitment of the Spanish and Navarre governments to this infrastructure, in which 160 million euros have been invested in four years, compared to the 73 million allocated from 2011 to 2018. In 2022, he stressed, almost 70 million were invested.
A trend, he declared, that “has to be consolidated in the coming years when the works reach Pamplona and Tudela and when the connection with the Basque Y is defined.”
Chivite has highlighted the importance of an “industrialized and clearly exporting” community like Navarra having a railway network with sufficient capacity and adapted to European standards, which involves reducing CO2 emissions and complying with the roadmap of the climate change.
The arrival of the TAP in Navarra, he commented, will mean “a better quality of life for citizens and greater competitiveness for companies”.
Ciriza: A sustainable and competitive means of transport
The conference was closed by the Minister of Territorial Cohesion, Bernardo Ciriza, who stressed that “the train gives us the opportunity to make freight transport not only more sustainable, but also more competitive”, for which he invited the companies to get on the train “in order to connect them with greater horizons of growth and progress”.
Ciriza has advanced that in the new assembly of the Euroregion Nueva-Aquitaine, Euskadi and Navarra, scheduled for this afternoon, the Government of Navarra will transfer “the urgent need for France to fulfill its commitments for the arrival of High Speed”.
“France has made a commitment to its citizens and to our citizens. A commitment to Europe. A commitment that must be fulfilled. This is how we are going to demand it from Navarra as they have also done from the central government ”, she concluded.