Comboios de Portugal (CP) will invest around 890 thousand euros in a new public residence for students in downtown Coimbra. The investment by CP aims to adapt the former operational dormitory in Coimbra, located on Rua do Arnado, into a student residence with 25 beds.
The work is expected to be completed by 2025. The investment comes within the scope of the National Plan for Higher Education Accommodation (PNAES), a program that foresees the provision of 18 thousand new beds for students in Portugal by 2026.
The decision was announced last Tuesday in Diário da República, and in addition to this residence in Coimbra, an investment in other accommodation for students in Lisbon by CP of around 927 thousand euros is planned, also in an operational dormitory.
Andreia Coutinho Lopes, coordinator of the accommodation area at the National Agency Erasmus+ Education and Training, the group that manages PNAES, considers CP’s association with this initiative to be positive and a motivating factor to work on the project.
The coordinator clarified that in addition to this new offering of student accommodation, there are other new residence projects underway in Coimbra, both for the use of students at the University of Coimbra and also for those at the Polytechnic Institute of Coimbra and the Coimbra School of Nursing.
The building will have two floors, a covered area of approximately 600 square meters and a bathroom for every two bedrooms. In 2023, CP announced its adherence to the Affordable Student Accommodation Program, included in the PNAES, with the promise of making the old facilities of these two operational dormitories available.
Photography: University of Coimbra
