Police clash with No TAV protestors

(ANSA) - Alessandria, July 30 - Police clashed with protestors Wednesday during demonstrations against a controversial TAV high-speed rail project in northern Italy.
    Protestors created small barricades using shrubbery as they demanded a halt to the project including the public expropriation of land in the area where the high-speed train line, which will connect Turin to Lyon, is being built.
    No TAV protestors said affected property owners were offered as much as five times the value of their land by governments anxious to create what proponents say will be an important link for business and industry.
    Opponents, who rallied near an existing rail line that will be replaced by the TAV, said that was an enormous waste of taxpayers' money.
    The protests, which have sometimes turned violent, have built up steam in recent years and been taken up by leftist and anti-capitalist groups despite government efforts to persuade opponents that the line is an essential piece of infrastructure, especially when Italy's economy has been suffering its longest postwar recession.
    The Italian and French governments have insisted that the link will not only speed passenger and freight traffic but also boost both countries' economies.