Irpinia tunnel, the heart of the High railway capacity between Naples and Bari, has finally got OK from Ministry of the Environment and the Higher Council of Public Works. After the Cipe decree is published in the Official Journal (of Italy), the extraordinary commissioner Maurizio Gentile will be able to start the process for the tender for the Hirpinia-Orsara, on second functional lot of the Apice-Orsara section: a 27-kilometer and 1.5 billion-euro project which is not fully funded yet.

The tunnel under Irpinia is the most sensitive part of the itinerary which should allow Bari and Naples to be connected in two and a half hours. There have been some environmental concerns like where to dump the excavated material etc. The Higher Council of Public Works had rejected the project twice and still only partially approved the it.

Now it looks completion of the tunnel by 2026 is over optimistic and not realistic.
 

https://www.lagazzettadelmezzogiorno.it/news/home/1201326/via-libera-al-tunnel-dellirpinia-per-unire-bari-con-napoli.html ;