The technical and investment effort of the Ministry of Transport and its public companies is beginning to yield strong results. The investment made last year was 859 million euros, 35% more than in 2021, not including the settlement to Acesa for the compensation of the works carried out on the highways before the end of the tolls, which would increase the figure to some unreal 1,928 million without tangible effects for citizens in the Catalan infrastructures.
Without the need to take this distorting element into account, the 859 million euros executed are slightly more than 40% of what was budgeted. It is a level that is not usually achieved and makes Catalonia the autonomous community with the highest investment made in Spain, 26% above the second region, when in the previous year it was in third position. “It is disappointing to see how the story of a cantankerous and victimizing Catalonia that does not correspond to reality continues to be reproduced,” lamented the Minister of Transport, Raquel Sánchez, on Tuesday during the Nit de les Infraestructures held at Foment del Treball.
The minister breasted that it is the highest figure since 2012, precisely when the investment that the government of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero had left on track began to decline and that sank to minimum levels with Mariano Rajoy in Moncloa. The fear of the sector is that the same situation will repeat itself now that the trend continues to rise with the Government of Pedro Sánchez.
Around half of those 859 million correspond to works of the Rodalies plan. There are so many at different points at the same time that they are precisely responsible for a significant part of the delays that have occurred in the rail network lately. With a live investment of 3,941 million, the works in progress will soon be added to the road and rail accesses to the port, whose basic project has been approved this week after long work by all the parties involved since 2020.
“We do not need extraordinary summits, what we must do is talk and work,” said the minister before the recently appointed regional councilor for Territories, Ester Capella, who extended her hand “with the utmost demand for the rigor in the evolution of the proposals that all Let’s discuss together.”
The first public approach between the new councilor and the minister was very cordial, as was the deputy mayor for Urban Planning, Janet Sanz, in what was probably her last act in office. On the stage of the employers’ association led by Josep Sánchez Llibre, who has questioned many of his projects, she called for a consensus “to confront denial” and permeate all administrations with a new civic culture.
