Construction on a new high-speed rail link from Turin to Lyon is expected to start this week despite objections by local residents and environmentalists, the BBC reports. The new tunnel is expected to cut the travel time by nearly half. Yesterday local residents built barricades to prevent heavy machinery from starting work in Val di Susa, in northern Italy and police were forced to use fire hoses and tear gas to disperse them.
However, the Italian government is determined to go ahead with the project, which is heavily backed by EU money and is estimated to cost 15bn Euros. Work was due to start by 30 June or the country risked losing the hundreds of million Euros the EU was contributing, a minister said at the weekend.
Earlier, more than 3,000 people took part in a peaceful, overnight candle-lit prayer vigil against the project. Residents fear that, despite safeguards built into the multi-billion euro project in a deal signed in 2001, an area of outstanding natural beauty is going to be spoilt. Other protests have been announced on the Internet, with a demonstration due in Rome on Tuesday.
New high-speed rail tunnel to link France and Italy
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