BRATISLAVA, October 3, (WEBNOVINY) – Transport Minister Jan Figel (KDH) claims that, according to the state budget draft for next year, there will be finances earmarked for the construction of roads. Their volume will increase by 356 million euro, and, there will also be additional sources from the EU funds. Adding the transfers of unspent money, the overall sum will get close to 1 billion euro, the minister elaborated in the STV’s political program “O Pat Minut Dvanast”. His department will open talks about the reallocation of sources to highway construction with some ministries.
Deputy Speaker of the Slovak Parliament and SMER leader Robert Fico countered that the above sum is nothing. Construction works on the D1 section Dubna Skala-Presov alone had been projected at 2.4 billion euro within the already canceled PPP project. “This sum, compared with the price usually achieved in public procurements, was lower; thus the PPP projects enable cheaper construction works versus standard public procurement procedures,” he explained. Fico pointed out that with PPP projects, private companies operate the highway for a period of 30 years and, in return, receive fees from the state. The former prime minister considers the halt of the project the most serious mistake, adding that “a bubble” is being created around the EU funds. Fifty percent of them are already contracted and nothing will be done with them. There still are the remaining 50 percent but these are finances within eleven operational programs. Fico wonders what the European Commission will say to a potential reallocation of finances.
Figel admitted that PPP projects remain one of alternatives on one of the planned sections. His ministry and the concessionaire Zilinska Dialnicna are in talks about the most difficult highway section that is to stretch underneath Zilina in order to attain acceptable conditions, also in relation to the price. The KDH leader underscored that quality, European-level prices and continuity of the building process are vital for road construction. The minister maintains that the original PPP package was overpriced.
SITA