In responses to the Lusa agency, Metro do Porto said it paid 839,723 euros to around 20 owners of establishments "who were forced to close temporarily or who saw their activity significantly reduced".

"Metro do Porto will continue to pay the compensation due until the end of this contract and is obviously open to analysing new situations that may arise", states the company.

Since the beginning of construction of the Rosa Line, which will connect São Bento to Casa da Música, the company has invested more than €1.6 million to support commercial establishments around the construction sites.

"Metro do Porto, as is public, has implemented a set of actions to mitigate the impacts resulting from the works it is carrying out, in close coordination with the Porto Traders' Association and the Porto City Council".

Of the €1.6 million invested, more than €457 thousand relate to the promotion of local commerce and decoration of construction sites, and more than €147 thousand to the security and surveillance of Largo dos Loios, Praça da Liberdade, Largo de S. Domingos, Rua Mouzinho da Silveira and Galerias da Trindade.

The company also lists investments made in terms of marketing campaigns (46.8 thousand euros), support for the Porto Merchants Association (10 thousand euros) and in the Trindade store gallery (113.7 thousand euros), created with the objective of temporarily relocating the businesses affected by the works.

"We currently have two stores open in Galerias da Trindade, in this project that we developed in close contact with the traders themselves".

On Monday, the executive of the Porto Chamber unanimously approved a PSD proposal that requires Metro to carry out an "urgent and fair review" of the compensation criteria for traders, which excludes the counting of the years of the Covid-19 pandemic.

"Using the pandemic years as a reference ignores the exceptional economic reality experienced by traders and does not reflect the true capacity to generate revenue before the works", says the proposal.

The recommendation also calls for a study to be carried out on the impact of the works on traders and the implementation of measures to mitigate the impact of the works, such as removing the barriers as soon as they are completed.

"Metro do Porto is a company with exclusively public capital, which is why it acts with total transparency, demand and rigor when it comes to spending public money to compensate traders".

The conclusion of the construction contract for the Rosa Line, which will connect São Bento to Casa da Música, is scheduled for July 2025 and the line should enter into operation this summer, according to Metrô do Porto.

With a total cost of 304.7 million euros, the Rosa Line will connect to the current Casa da Música and São Bento metro stations and will have intermediate stations at Hospital de Santo António and Praça da Galiza.