During the Municipal Assembly of Covilhã, to which he was invited, the person responsible for the tourism concessionaire company in Serra da Estrela reported having submitted the Mobility Project to the mayor a month ago and challenged the various entities to help materialize the intention expressed over the years.

According to Artur Costa Pais, the idea is "well developed", but he added that he will not take "more ambitious steps", because the preparation of an architectural project of this nature can exceed one million euros and he considered that it "should not be led by a single entity".

The project includes two accesses to the Tower, from Nave de Santo António, in the municipality of Covilhã, and from Lagoa Comprida, in Seia, two routes by air that will "solve the problem of accessibility to the Tower".

Artur Costa Pais stressed that the people interested in investing are people "with proven experience" and "great experience", who already have what he claimed to be the largest cable car in the Iberian Peninsula, in Santander, Spain, with an extension of five kilometres.

"We have financial solutions, which is very important", highlighted the businessman, who stressed that this is not a project of Turistrela, but of Serra da Estrela, and a solution to "solve the big problem of Serra da Estrela".

The administrator of Turistrela pointed out that most visitors leave unhappy, because they do not have parking or access to the Tower and added that "there is no destination" if those who go to the mountain "are not well treated".

Artur Costa Pais appealed for the creation of a Monitoring Committee, with the municipalities of Covilhã and Seia, from the districts of Castelo Branco and Guarda, and considered that "with this project the environmental problem and the credibility problem of access to the Tower are solved".

"Join together. We do not want to lead anything. I just want it to be done. The big projects in the mountains are yet to happen", emphasized Artur Costa Pais.

The mayor of Covilhã, Vítor Pereira, replied that there is commitment for the project to succeed, although he stressed that "it is necessary to diversify, to give it more rigour at all levels".

In response to criticism from the businessman, who pointed the finger at the Institute for Nature Conservation and Forests (ICNF), for not approving his projects, the regional director, Fátima Reis, replied that the body does not approve ideas, without projects or preliminary projects, and added that it had been formally shown "agreement in conceptual terms", but added that the project needs "to be matured" and mention, namely, "where the support structures are".

"The ICNF approves, as long as they are credible projects with some environmental concern", said Fátima Reis.

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