The New Port Autority of the “Lower Thyrrenian”: An Opportunity for the Strait of Messina Metropolitan Area

The article starts from the “National Strategic Plan of the Harbours and Logistics”, approved by the Italian Government in July 2015, setting out the development strategies of the Italian port system and providing, among the other things, the redesign of the governance of the Italian port system. The old existing 24 Port authorities are replaced by 15 Authorities of port- system, in which different ports are combined in order to create an efficient port system able to compete and succeed in the overall system of commercial traffic in the Mediterranean Sea.Within this framework, the creation of a new Authority is provided, which incorporates the former Calabrian Port System with the old Port Authority of Messina. In this way we are going to create a large port system, centred on the area of the Messina Strait, comprising 10 ports, including the transhipment port of Gioia Tauro, which represents the core of the entire port system, and the port of Messina, the most important passenger port in Italy and one of the most important as regards the cruise sector. The article analyses the development perspectives that this system can offer with regard to two important aspects:the realization of the project -already imagined in the late’60s- for an Integrated Metropolitan Area of the Strait, including the two metropolitan cities of Messina and Reggio Calabria;the transformation of the port of Gioia Tauro, from an exclusively transhipment port into an Intermodal Logistics Pole, which will be the central strategic hub of a large logistics platform of the Strait Area, whose implementation should be a great opportunity for the development of the entire Mezzogiorno.