In my last note of a few days ago I indicated the areas within which there was a series of interventions which, within a medium and long term time frame, are capable of ensuring the participation of the eight Regions of Southern Italy in the formation of the country’s Gross Domestic Product, from a value of approximately 21% to over 32%. In this regard, I had focused on some works that involved three regions such as Campania, Puglia and Basilicata.
I had reiterated the opportunity for the comparison between the central body and the local body to no longer take place in a disjointed way but, given the relevance and strategic dimension of the works, to take place through a comparison between the State and the eight Southern regions. Today I continue to list other works which alone testify to the dimension that is completely different from a “localistic” logic.
I report, like last time, the overview of the areas:
1) functional redevelopment of the transport offer in the large metropolitan areas of the South (the financial needs are equal to approximately 7,000 million euros of which 2,800 million euros are available);
2) organic creation of the high-speed/high-capacity railway system in the entire Southern system through the functional adaptation of some axes such as the “Adriatic” one and the completion of the Naples-Bari axis and the creation of the Salerno-Reggio Calabria, Palermo-Messina axes Catania and Taranto Battipaglia (the financial needs are equal to approximately 29,650 million euros of which 12,260 million euros are available);
3) creation of essential and strategic road axes such as the one relating to the connection between Taranto and Reggio Calabria along the Ionian stretch or the functional adaptation of the connection between Cagliari and Nuoro (the financial needs are equal to approximately 10,100 million euros of which 3,110 million are available millions of euros;
4) implementation of interventions aimed at optimizing the logistics offer of some HUBs in the South through both the creation of functional retroports of the port of Gioia Tauro, the port of Naples, and the restructuring of the transhipment ports of Cagliari; Augusta and Taranto (the financial needs are approximately 2,400 million euros, of which 100 million euros are available);
5) creation of the integrated system relating to the stable connection on the Strait of Messina (financial needs are approximately 14,000 million euros, of which 12,800 million euros are available).
The two aces
Well, this time I am examining two axes: one railway and one road; in particular:
high-speed railway axis Salerno Reggio Calabria crossing the Strait of Messina Palermo and Catania; road axis Taranto Sibari Crotone Catanzaro Reggio Calabria (106 Jonica).
The first axis
They are two corridors, one railway and one road, which give functional continuity to five distinct Regions (Campania, Calabria, Sicily, Puglia and Basilicata) and which not only eliminate the current distances between urban and productive realities of the entire southern territory but allow a functional reinvention of areas which, supported by inadequate road and rail connections, have increasingly moved away from key production and marketing markets.
The high-speed rail corridor, as can be seen from the Table below, has a cost (also including the stable connection across the Strait) of 37 billion euros and of this amount, allocations of 21 billion euros have already been guaranteed; these two data automatically lead us towards a consideration that I consider historical: never in Noon a work with such a high investment value and with a financial availability of more than 50% had been identified. In this regard, also to motivate what I define as historical relevance, I recall that throughout the South in the last decade, from 2014 to 2024, interventions have been undertaken for strategic works amounting to an amount of 7.6 billion euros and spent just 4.2 billion euros.
But to this data, which alone also makes it clear how important the involvement of entrepreneurial and occupational activities is, I add other more important ones: this umbilical cord, in addition to offering two degrees of freedom to an island like Sicily which today lacks a fluid and systematic with the entire community system through a road and railway axis, it also ensures an unimaginable renewal of residential habits and commercial relations between Naples, Salerno, the central system of Calabria (through two high-speed stops similar to that of Reggio Emilia capable of aggregating a demand from users of urban areas in the provinces of Cosenza, Vibo and Catanzaro) and the system of the three Sicilian metropolitan areas (Messina, Palermo, Catania). An umbilical cord that finally increases the potential of this vast southern territory and also enhances the roles and functions of five airports such as those of Lamezia, Reggio Calabria, Catania, Comiso and Palermo.
The second axis
The other corridor, as mentioned before, is the one relating to the road axis Taranto Sibari Crotone – Catanzaro Reggio Calabria (106 Jonica); for this axis the overview of needs and coverage is shown below and on the basis of requests from the President of the Occhiuto Region it is thought that the quota of availability will be implemented; this axis has actually been pursuing three objectives for years (over forty): reducing the accident rate which in recent years has reached a dramatic threshold (16 deaths in one year); restore role and function to the production realities of the Lucanian and Calabrian Jonic system (a system with a strong presence of activities linked to the agro-food sector);
finally offer an adequate road axis for one of the most attractive tourist areas in the country.
The government’s interlocution
I stop here because I think the dimension and impact of such a programmatic intuition are clear, but even in this case, as said at the beginning, I wonder whether the Government should communicate with individuals in the concrete implementation of such an action plan. Presidents of the Campania, Calabria, Sicily, Lucania and Puglia Regions; instead, I think that the Government should communicate with the eight Southern Regions because this enrichment of some Southern tiles represents the first real measurable act of relaunching the entire Southern mosaic.
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