Ferretti’s investment in Taranto (a factory with 200 employees for the construction of hulls for yachts) is safe. And the project for the aquarium is not definitively discarded but only put on stand-by and temporarily finalized pending review of the design that will transform it into a multimedia center dedicated to the culture of the sea. The meeting of the Institutional Development Contract for Taranto, born from a 2015 law, chaired by the Minister for the South, Mara Carfagna, finds a pragmatic agreement that allows us to move forward and therefore overcome the problem that had emerged on the two initiatives: Ferretti and aquarium.
Ferretti and the aquarium
The 50 million taken away from the aquarium for the moment, which after VAT are reduced to 42.8 million actual, are transferred for 14.2 million to Ferretti, which had announced its intention to abandon the investment in Italy if the match had not closed, on the financial side, by the end of 2021. For another 1.5 million they go to the project, to be reset, of the aquarium and for the rest to other measures of the Cis Taranto in progress and not yet completed. Among these, the reclamation of the former Cemerad landfill from low radioactivity drums, the initiatives for the Municipalities which, in addition to Taranto, constitute the area of environmental crisis, namely Massafra, Crispiano, Statte and Montemesola, and the “green belt” of Taranto.
The green domes of Fuksas in Lamastuola
Among the projects that could return to the track, the transformation into a park of the disused quarry Lamastuola, in Crispiano, following the indications of the project of the archistar Massimiliano Fuksas. The latter, months ago, was consulted by the Ilva commissioners in extraordinary administration, competent for the reclamation of Lamastuola as an area excluded from the perimeter of the 2018 sale to ArcelorMittal Italy, and has developed a preliminary project that provides, once the reclamation is complete, the construction of a series of steel domes covered with greenery. The domes are intended to host university and cultural activities.
What held back the aquarium
But why was the aquarium project temporarily stopped? For three reasons: first of all because from its launch, over a year ago, to today, the project has been transformed, so much so that we are talking about a digital structure and therefore the initial setting has been left; moreover, because, from the analysis made to the sole manager of the Contract, Paolo Esposito, head of the Cohesion Agency, the sum initially posted was excessive since it is a multimedia structure, and therefore with lower investment costs, and this allows to free up resources to do more; finally, because it is not a project that can be set up in a short time and Minister Carfagna called the Table on the advisability of not immobilizing resources.
The Ferretti operation
As for Ferretti, the 14.2 million close the circle considering that other resources, especially for the reclamation and safety of the former Belleli yard, have already been foreseen. Now there should be the signing of the agreement under Article ex 252 bis of the Environmental Code on remediation and reindustrialisation by the ministries of Economic Development and Ecological Transition with other interested parties.