Mayor of Cubatão opposes to truck yard

The installation of a truck yard in the area known as Ilha do Tatu, next to the Mario Covas viaduct in Cubatão, could impact the mobility of over 60,000 people, warned Mayor Ademário Oliveira (PSDB) about the upcoming public call that the Santos Port Authority (APS) intends to launch in the coming days.

As reported by A Tribuna last Friday, it involves the concession of an area of 530,000 square meters (m2), with a counterpart of 100,000 m2 intended for public parking with 800 spaces for trucks. The land transfer, which belongs to the Union, will be through a public-private partnership (PPP).

However, while the APS sees the yard as addressing the shortage of spaces for heavy vehicles, for the Mayor of Cubatão it represents exacerbating the bottleneck in access to nearby neighborhoods.

"I am vehemently against bringing trucks into the urban area. Over 60,000 people, who live in Ilha Caraguatá, Jardim Casqueiro, Parque São Luís and Vila dos Pescadores, will be directly affected", says Oliveira. "This is an imposition, and we will not accept it. Municipalities still have sovereignty within the Federal Pact", protests the Mayor.

He also states that he has not been approached by the APS to discuss the matter. "The Federal Government cannot discuss a project without dialogue. How can one part think of a yard without discussing the side effects, without discussing it from a logistical and bottleneck perspective? How can someone think of choking a city with the intention of modernizing another (Santos)?", he questions.

The mayor emphasizes that the Municipality's Master Plan classifies the area as "commercial urban extension" and that around 15,000 residents of Pockets 7, 8, and 9, in Jardim Casqueiro, use Anchieta and Imigrantes highways interchange as access to the neighborhood, which is close to the area.

The mayor's inquiries were forwarded by report to APS, which responded in a statement. It stated that the area known as Ilha do Tatu, in Cubatão, was included in the polygon of the Port of Santos. "The implementation of a rotating parking lot is an urgent need of the Port and will allow investments in the accessibility of road cargo, which is one of the strategic objectives of APS".

The manager of the Santos port complex also informs that "within the Port-cities relationship, any initiative that impacts citizens' daily lives will be discussed with stakeholders, whether they are port users and clients, residents of the surrounding area, organized civil society, municipalities and city councils".

Public hearing

The APS informs that further clarifications about the area will be presented during the public hearing on June 13rd and in others that will take place, all at the headquarters of the port manager. "The APS will hold a series of public hearings in June, with the first one on the 13rd, to discuss the port's polygon and, consequently, the area to be auctioned".