by Fiorella Lavorgna
(Il Sole 24 Ore Radiocor) – The Minister for the South and territorial cohesion Mara Carfagna, the Mayor of Rome Roberto Gualtieri and the president of the Lazio Region Nicola Zingaretti have signed an institutional development contract (Cis) for the city of Rome. This agreement provides for the allocation of resources of up to almost 400 thousand euros for the modernization and energy conversion of schools in the capital. These resources come for 200 million from the Development and Cohesion Fund of the new 2021/2027 programming, 42 million euros from resources still available from the Pon Metro Plus fund of the 201472020 budget and a further 150 million euros that Roma Capitale will acquire through the activation of a mortgage.
The interventions will serve to make the energy consumption of school buildings more efficient and sustainable. The planned works include the replacement of obsolete heating systems with the installation of photovoltaic and solar thermal panels and the transition to LED lighting. The number of schools receiving the interventions is potentially 300 units.
Three-step operation
The operation will be staggered into three phases. It will start with funding from the Development and Cohesion Fund thanks to which each municipality will receive between 11 and 13 million euros for its schools. The timing for the implementation of the CIS should be very tight. As early as the end of 2022, after the final approval of the Cipess, it will be possible to start tenders with Invitalia for the first 200 million interventions. The second phase of investments, worth over 190 million euros, will involve 101 schools. Subsequently, new resources or tender economies may open a further phase that could involve another 96 structures. The first construction sites for 2024 while the general program will have to be completed by the end of 2027. The CIS of Rome signed today for the energy conversion of over 200 schools # 3 “When we realized that with the PNRR we would not be able to address the school problem, we immediately took action to not lose this opportunity” said Mayor Gualtieri during the presentation of the CIS in the Capitol. All three protagonists of the day insisted on how this contract was possible thanks to a fruitful institutional collaboration, even between political representatives coming from different political families. For Zingaretti, this intervention must mark a change of pace in the provision of public services in the light of climate change.