The head of the Italian government has judged “very modest” the sum of 500 million euros proposed by the motorway concessionaire to compensate the victims and rebuild Genoa’s Morandi viaduct which collapsed last week, killing 43 people.

“Given the exorbitant profits that this group has made for years, this envelope could be quadrupled or quintupled,” the Prime Minister told Corriere della Sera.

According to Infrastructure Minister Danilo Toninelli, the Atlantia motorway group, the parent company of Autostrade del Italia, whose Benetton family is the largest shareholder, “has accumulated 10 billion euros in profits (from tolls) over the past 15 years.”

Autostrade claims to be able to build a metal viaduct in eight months in place of the old one, an assertion greeted with skepticism by the government which says it has already received other offers.