Nearly 60 farms in Antigua to be expropriated for North-South Axis highway

The Antigua City Council provided space for the Directorate General of Road Infrastructure and Mobility to sign the occupation agreements for the highway segment between the airport and the Pozo Negro crossing of the North‑South Axis.

The Antigua City Council hosted, last week, the procedure for issuing roughly 60 preliminary occupation certificates for parcels and lands affected by the North‑South highway project, specifically the stretch between the airport and the Pozo Negro crossing.

The process was carried out by the technical team of the Directorate General of Road Infrastructure and Mobility, which traveled to the municipality to meet the affected owners and formalise this step within the expropriation procedure required to execute the works.

According to the council, the municipal plenary hall was made available to give personalised attention to about 60 local landowners whose farms lie on the planned route within the municipality of Antigua. The agreements also include three parcels owned by the municipal public authority.

“The issuance of preliminary occupation certificates is part of the expropriation process, but it does not yet imply actual occupation or final expropriation of the land,” the council explained. “During this stage the administration identifies each affected property, its owners, boundaries, crops, buildings or possible impacts, and records this information formally before proceeding with the file, potentially moving toward the determination of compensation and eventual occupation.”

The highway works, to be carried out by the Canary Islands Government’s Department of Public Works, are included—according to the council—in the 2018‑2027 Canary‑State Roads Agreement, whose goal is “to improve mobility and strengthen road safety in the connection between the north and south of Fuerteventura.”

Antigua’s mayor, Matías Peña García, signed the expropriation agreements reached between the parties, including the three municipal parcels, as noted in the council’s press release.

The councilor also highlighted the organisation of the procedure and the assistance provided by the technical team dispatched to the municipality. The team, the statement added, “detailed the boundaries of each parcel on a map and explained to every owner the specifics of the expropriation before the issuance of the certificates.”