Requested 1 bn from Recovery Fund for quake towns - Legnini

(ANSA) - ROME, MAR 3 - Italy has requested one billion euros from the EU's COVID Recovery Fund to be allocated to helping towns and villages recover from the devastating earthquake that hit central Italy in 2016, quake commissioner Giovanni Legnini told an ANSA Forum Wednesday.
    "The measures complementary to the process of reconstruction which we have proposed regarding the Recovery Fund resources are decisive," he said.
    He said one billion euros had been requested for the borghi affected by the 2016 tremor and an earlier one that hit Abruzzo in 2009.
    The money would be used, he said, "to equip the borghi, to make them attractive, to make them sustainable and connected".
    Legnini added: "the great challenge is to ensure the quality of reconstruction, to make the towns smart".
    The earthquake, measuring 6.2 in magnitude scale, hit Central Italy on 24 August 2016.
    Its epicentre was close to Accumoli, with its hypocentre at a depth of 4 km, approximately 75 km (47 mi) southeast of Perugia and 45 km (28 mi) north of L'Aquila, in an area near the borders of the Umbria, Lazio, Abruzzo and Marche regions. As of 15 November 2016, 299 people had been killed.
    The 2009 L'Aquila earthquake, measuring 5.9 on the Richter magnitude scale, killed 308 people. (ANSA).