Government approves €48 million to complete Lisbon Metro’s Circular Line

Portugal’s government is to inject around €48 million to complete Lisbon Metro’s Circular Line between the stations Rato and Cais do Sodré in a total spend of €380 million.

However, the project is already 80% over budget and three year and three months over schedule.

The cash was approved by the Council of Ministers on Thursday last week to complete the metro extensions on the Yellow and Green lines.

“This increase brings the total investment to €380 million, which represents an 80% difference compared to the forecast when the project was launched in 2018,” said António Leitão Amaro, adding that “virtually all of this 80% increase was decided in 2022.”

“Obviously, we cannot leave the project unfinished. But it is worthwhile for the country to consider how a project of this magnitude was launched, ending up costing €380 million euros in the centre of the capital, in two neighborhoods that are not particularly deprived,” Leitão Amaro pointed out.

At the end of March, Lisbon Metro CEO, Cristina Vaz Tomé, stated in Portugal’s parliament that the opening of the Circular line was three years and three months behind schedule, adding that the company she has led since January 1 has been conducting “very productive talks with the contractors responsible for this project, Mota-Engil and Zagope, to ensure that the project is inaugurated in the first quarter of 2027”.

“The project isn’t delivered, it’s inaugurated,” the president emphasised in the same hearing, after explaining that the first part of the project “was completed in September 2024, but the account had not been closed nor paid to the contractor”. “This has created tension and ill will from the contractor towards the company,” Cristina Vaz Tomé added.

With its inauguration initially planned for the second half of 2025, the Circular Line will connect Rato station to Cais do Sodré, extending the network by two kilometers. As part of this project, two new stations will be created, one in Estrela and the other in Santos, allowing the yellow and green lines to be connected.

Source: Negócios; Credits: Artists Key