Cabinet approves Messina Bridge decree (4)

(ANSA) - ROME, MAR 17 - Premier Giorgia Meloni's cabinet approved a decree on Thursday paving the way for construction of a bridge between mainland Italy and Sicily across the Strait of Messina.
    Deputy Premier and Infrastructure and Transport Minister Matteo Salvini hailed the development as a "historic day for the whole of Italy".
    "After 50 years this cabinet has approved (construction of) the bridge linking Sicily to the rest of Italy and to Europe," said Salvini in a video meassage from Palazzo Chigi after the cabinet meeting.
    The bridge will create "real work for tens of thousands of people" for many years, continued the minister, adding that the project will be "absolutely safe".
    The structure "will be certified by the best engineers from the best Italian and international universities", Salvini concluded.
    The controversial project has been considered by several past Italian governments but has never taken off for a variety of reasons, including the price tag of many billions of euros.
    The project has also met opposition from environmentalists and some analysts amid concerns over its safety due to the seismic nature of the proposed building sites at both ends and fears of potential Mafia involvement.
    The European Union has said it is willing to fund the first feasibility phase.
    Leader of government coalition partner Forza Italia and former premier Silvio Berlusconi said the "concrete project ...
    represents the idea of ;;future that we have always had".
    "With my government we had the project ready 20 years ago, a strategic work that would have been built if the left hadn't intervened with its policy of saying 'no'. This time they won't stop us," added Berlusconi.
    "The Bridge over the Strait is expensive and dangerous, and its certainly not a priority," said Senate opposition Green Left Alliance whip Beppe De Cristofaro, describing it as "an old proposal" and a "gift to the concrete and business lobbies".
    "This government does not go in the direction of a green breakthrough or of redistribution, but rather dusts down projects that are years old exclusively for propaganda reasons," he continued. (ANSA).