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Bloomberg
The Benetton family’s Atlantia SpA is preparing a compensation package to help victims of the Genoa bridge disaster and provide the region with funds to repair damaged train links and roads.
The plan was worked out in consultations between executives at the family’s holding company, the Atlantia infrastructure company they control, and their lawyers and advisers.
Autostrade per l’Italia, the highway bridge’s operator controlled by Atlantia, said it would present details of the package at a news conference in Genoa. Autostrade said in a statement the plan includes compensation for the families of the victims, those displaced from their homes and for the surrounding region, but did not specify any amounts.
The recent bridge collapse, which killed at least 41 people, has also damaged the area’s economic viability, interrupting road travel between northern Italy and the French Riviera while forcing rail cargo to be rerouted through the centre of Genoa. The compensation offer is meant to build good will for the Benettons as they try to quell the political storm that arose in the wake of the tragedy, and avoid the potential loss of its lucrative toll-road concession.
Italy’s transportation minister, Danilo Toninelli, said that the government sent a letter to Autostrade beginning the process to forfeit the concession. The move adds to pressure on the Benettons to make amends following the disaster. Italy’s governing populist coalition has sent mixed signals on its plans.