Sardinia, Bagalà commissioner of the Port System Authority

New course for the Port System Authority of the Sea of Sardinia. Since 9 August, the 57-year-old engineer Domenico Bagalà has been at the helm of the Adsp, which manages the island's ports. Calabrese "but Sardinian by adoption," he was appointed extraordinary commissioner by decree of the Ministry of Infrastructure on 9 August. In the past, he led the transhipment company Contship in the Canal Port of Cagliari and the Medcenter in Gioia Tauro. Bagalà takes the place of Massimo Deiana, president who led the system authority for two terms.

Eight ports in Sardinia fall under the control of the system authority. Cagliari, 11 miles from the ideal Gibraltar-Suez line, 'represents one of the poles for transhipment activity in the western Mediterranean'. In the same area, at Sarroch - Porto Foxi, there are petrochemical-oil docks with berths for seventeen ships, serving one of the most important national refineries. Then there is Olbia, considered the main gateway to the Costa Smeralda, as well as being one of the Mediterranean's most important passenger ports, with over three million presences each year, it is also an important commercial port of call with almost six million tonnes of freight by road. Then there are the ports of Golfo Aranci, Santa Teresa, Arbatax, Portovesme, Porto Torres and Oristano. Important structures with different peculiarities and where modernisation or expansion works are in progress.

"I started by visiting all the shipyards," says the commissioner, "I took office on Tuesday and I started with Cagliari, continuing with Porto Torres, Olbia, Golfo Aranci and Olbia again. I want to become aware of the different activities and so I will continue with the inspections'. In the island's entire port system, which has eight official ports plus Sarroch, which, however, is an emanation of Cagliari's, there are works worth EUR 780 million underway. 'In light of these important resources,' Bagalà adds, 'I think it is necessary to personally verify the state of the construction sites and works, which, I must say, are proceeding in a punctual and precise manner, such as in Cagliari for the Ro-Ro terminal construction site, while in Olbia a problem needs to be resolved regarding the dredging issue.

Over the next few days, as the commissioner points out, meetings will continue in the rest of the port facilities. "Once the visits are over," he adds, "I will proceed with meetings with stakeholders, trade union organisations, and then the mayors of the territories. In addition, 'once the framework is defined, I will also meet with the president of the region because there are important opportunities in the ports that our island cannot afford to lose'.