“This process has a delay of a year and a half. It should be finished by now. As we know, the litigation in court today is enormous, there was an injunction, this measure took around a year and a half to be dispatched”, said the president of the municipality, Rui Santos.
The PS mayor was referring to the Vila Real business reception area – Polo II – industrial area of Constantim, which is being built and will be carried out in two phases, the first with 34 hectares, around 80 lots and the accesses that will then serve the around 50 lots to be built in the second phase of the project.
Rui Santos gave an overview of the ongoing project, whose work began in the summer and where deforestation has already been carried out and land is being moved.
The investment in the first phase is €10 million.
“This project could be inaugurated today, it is not, it is under construction, but better late than never. We had an objective and that is the objective, with two projects, it will be completed, if everything goes well, by September of next year”, he said.
The mayor explained that one of the companies that participated in the public tender and that was excluded filed a precautionary measure, having lost the process both at the Administrative and Fiscal Court of Mirandela and at the Central Administrative Court of the North, where it appealed.
Meanwhile, the municipality lost the money from the application for community funds worth 1.5 million euros, having already submitted a new application for the same amount.
“With this response, all companies that want to set up in Vila Real, and that we will actively seek to set up in Vila Real, will have space to do so in an absolutely privileged location, close to the A24 and A4 motorways, in a strategic node”, highlighted Rui Santos.
He recalled that this is an “old idea”, which even had community funding of 10 million euros secured, but which the previous social-democratic executive dropped.
“We managed to rebuild this objective and we are achieving it”, he stressed.
Nuno Augusto, executive director of Regia Douro Park, said that this was also “a complicated process of acquiring” land, and it was necessary to negotiate with 300 owners to purchase around 200 plots of land.
According to this official, the lots should be available in nine months.
Nuno Augusto also said that the second phase of the project has not yet been budgeted, but foresees an investment of around four million euros.
In addition to the new area, Rui Santos also highlighted the work to expand the old industrial area, which has already been completed, with an investment of two million euros, plus 18 lots and seven hectares of land.
“Of these, nine are already registered, they have already been handed over to companies so that they can start building their spaces here as quickly as possible, this construction will be associated with the creation of new jobs”, he highlighted.
There, according to Nuno Augusto, companies in the areas of logistics, transport, distribution, mechanics and workshops will be installed.
“We have the example of one of the largest medicine distributors in the world that created its location here to distribute medicines throughout the North region, in a large investment that generated 20 jobs”, he highlighted.
Rui Santos highlighted the demand for lots by companies from different sectors and highlighted the fulfillment of these two commitments made by the socialist executive: – the expansion of the current industrial area, which is completed, and a new business area, which is being built.