BRATISLAVA, February 24, (WEBNOVINY) – Funding of highway construction from the state budget and EU funds is, according to Transport Minister Jan Figel (KDH), more advantageous for the state than overpriced public-private partnership (PPP) projects. Building costs of D1 highway sections under construction, which should have originally been built within the first PPP package along with other stretches, are cheaper by some 700 million euros, Figel said. The transport minister told Friday’s press conference that after tenders for construction of remaining sections in the northern highway are completed, savings of the state will go up to some 2 billion euros.
Figel says that if the first and third PPP package had been implemented, the state would have paid 17 billion euros in total to concessionaires within 30 years while 10 billion euros would be fees to banks and shareholders. He opines that public-private partnership in highway construction should be only additional and advantageous also for the state while he can imagine application of this model, for example in funding the construction of the Bratislava bypass on D4 highway.
SITA