 Some government officials, such as multiple mayors from the area and the governor of the region of Apulia, also supported the environmentalists' opinion that the pipeline might cause more harm than good and could be an opportunity for local organised crime and corruption to infiltrate public tenders for construction work on the Italian side.They worry especially in relation to a taxpayer-funded 60-kilometre long interconnector which will have to be built to link the TAP's Italian terminal in Melendugno to Italy's national gas network near the industrial port of Brindisi.The Apulia Region governor Michele Emiliano told an Al Jazeera English crew in 2016 that he could not understand why an alternative landing point to San Foca beach, closer to the Brindisi industrial area, was not chosen in spite of lower costs, less severe environmental impact, and proximity to pre-existing gas infrastructure.