Francesc Quetglas, the Balearic minister of public works, yesterday called on the central ministry of public works to assign 150'000 pesetas per inhabitant from the Railway Development Fund, to bury the stretch of railway which runs through Palma. He spoke to the media while visiting the AIDS stand set up at the railway station. Quetglas said that if the ministry gave this sum (the result of dividing the 6.7 billion pesetas for the eight year plan among all the inhabitants of Spain), his department would be able to carry out the work. He said that this was one of the requests which Joaquin Rodriguez, the director general of transport, and José Antonio Santos, the manager of Serveis Ferroviaris de Mallorca, put to the director general of railways during a meeting held yesterday. However, he said that he was not very optimistic about the results of demands, bearing in mind that the Balearics will only receive 18 million pesetas from the Plan for next year, and the central minister, Francisco Alvarez Cascos has already told him that his department does not finance putting railway lines underground. The director of the railway company said that the cost of burying the railway had to be born by the central government as it is too heavy a burden for the islands, even if the Balearic government, Council of Majorca and Palma city council joined forces. Asked about a city council proposal to set up a committee with representatives of the government, Council of Majorca and government representative's office, to establish priorities in amenities and roads for Palma, he said he was prepared to accept providing the State is represented, as it has the financial capacity.
Minister seeks 150´000 ptas per inhabitant for railway