BRATISLAVA, December 19, (SITA) – According to leader of the opposition SMER-SD party Robert Fico, the party has a diametrically different opinion on highways than the government, which wants to build the most expensive and most difficult stretches with sources from the state budget and EU funds, and only the rest on the basis of PPP projects. Fico stated in Sunday’s political debate program Na Telo of the private television Markiza that building highways would be faster if a combination of all three forms of funding was used. According to him, the use of state funds and EU funds only will slow the process down by long years. Transport Minister Jan Figel (KDH) reminded that Fico originally promised completion of the highway between Bratislava and Kosice with the use of PPP projects by 2010. Figel thinks that the highway stretch between Zilina and Martin could realistically be completed in autumn of 2016. The transport minister added that next year, the construction of the most difficult part, which has been prepared for many years, the tunnel Visnove, will be started.
According to minister Figel, the construction of highways via PPP projects would be overpriced. He argues that EU funds, which are advantageous sources, will be used for highways. Highways are a priority for which approximately EUR 2.2 billion in total will be used. Fico maintains that cancellation of the second PPP package between Ruzomberok and Presov was a huge mistake. He insists that PPP projects in times of a crisis are most suitable, as they give work, and are not at all overpriced. Figel warned that no government has spent half a billion annually on highway construction, while three years after the completion of two PPP packages, the state budget would be burdened by repaying them. “What sources would we build the other roads with?”, the minister asked and added that the third package was “unwise and overpriced”. Cancellation of the third PPP package will bring reduction of expenses of EUR 3.6 billion, he believes. Fico called it a nonsense. He added that the schedule of works which the government has announced is absolutely unrealistic.
SITA