(ANSA) - ROME, NOV 8 - The construction of what would be the world's longest suspension bridge across the Messina Strait from Sicily to mainland Italy is the biggest anti-mafia operation imaginable, Transport Minister and Deputy Premier Matteo Salvini said Friday.
    "The Bridge over the Strait is a construction site that will not only unite Sicily and Calabria after a century of chatter, Messina and Villa San Giovanni, but will unite Italy to Europe, to the world," the rightwing League party leader said on the sidelines of the conference 'Bridges and viaducts. Guidelines for verification and control. Design and construction', organized by the National Agency for the safety of railways and road and motorway infrastructure, ANSFISA. "It will create more than 100,000 jobs according to the company's estimates and will be the largest anti-mafia operation.
    "Because someone says: don't build the bridge in Sicily and Calabria because there is the Mafia and the 'Ndrangheta'. It's crazy. The mafia thrives where there is desperation, where young people have no future and no work. The bridge will bring work, wealth, beauty, will save tons of CO2 in the air, so it will be one of the greenest bridges in the world".
    The director of ANSFISA, Domenico Capomolla and the CEO of the Stretto di Messina bridge construction company, Pietro Ciucci, signed a memorandum of understanding for the development of the executive design of the bridge's monitoring systems during the drafting of the executive project.
    "Today the technicians signed an agreement that provides for the total safety of what will be a public work studied around the world", commented Salvini.
    The bridge is currently costed at 4.6 billion euro and is scheduled to come into use in the early 2030s.
    The project, which was first championed by late three-time ex-premier and media mogul Silvio Berlusconi, has been delayed due to its high cost, environmental concerns, and fears of mafia infiltration on both sides of the Strait, by 'Ndrangheta in Calabria and Cosa Nostra in Sicily.
    The project's current champion, Salvini, has said construction sites will open by the end of the year and it will take seven years to complete the bridge.
    It will span over two miles, or 3.2 km, and become by far the world's longest suspension bridge.
    Currently, the 1915 Çanakkale Bridge in Turkey holds the record since opening to traffic in March 2022, with a span of 2,023 metres (6,637 ft).
    Since 1998, the Akashi Kaikyo Bridge in Japan had previously held the record with a span of 1,991 metres (6,532 ft). (ANSA).