BRATISLAVA, December 16, (WEBNOVINY) – Opposition SMER-SD parliamentary deputy and ex-minister of transport Lubomir Vazny reproaches the government for having halted the highway construction in Slovakia, which he warned will overprice highways and incur serious damages to the Slovak economy in the future. At an unscheduled parliamentary session on Thursday initiated by the strongest opposition party which wants to discuss preparation and construction of highways in parliament Vazny criticized the government for its decision to scrap the third PPP package for construction of D1 highway sections in the area of Zilina. He said that the decision is a serious defeat of Transport Minister Jan Figel. Vazny warned that the situation from 1998-2006 repeats when in the era of Mikulas Dzurinda the highway construction was overpriced by 170 percent and costs per kilometer thus rose to SKK 650 million (EUR 21.576 million
Regarding the government’s commitment to open 5.2 kilometers of highway on an annual basis in 2001 and 2012, Vazny said neither the government nor the Transport Ministry should set such poor aims for them. The ex-minister however is rather reserved on whether even this plan is realistic. The ex-minister underscored that in the era of Robert Fico almost 140 kilometers of highway were open for drivers in 2006-2010. Vazny also criticized that the state budget for next year allocates 63 percent less Euro-funds for highways, down 63 percent from this year. He warned that after PPP projects were scrapped European money will not be enough to cover highway construction.
Responding to criticism of his predecessor, Transport Minister Jan Figel labeled the highway public-private partnership projects prepared by the previous government mega-constructions. He said that they would have caused that Slovakia would have embarked on the Hungarian path to Greece. This is why the current government stopped the implementation of the first and third PPP packages for construction of the D2 stretches from Martin to Presov and in the area of Zilina
Figel underscored that installments, which the state would have had to pay to concessionaires in case that all three PPP packages had been realized would have achieved EUR 700 million on an annual basis. According to him Slovakia has never before spent such sum for highway construction. The minister specified that currently only works on the second PPP project continue, which is to construct sections of the R1 dual carriageway between Nitra and Tekovske Nemce.c and the northern bypass of Banska Bystrica. In reaction to Vazny’s criticism of the government aim to open only 10 kilometers of highway in the next two years Figel said that in 2011 the government can open only the sections on which works have already started.
Figel also assured lawmakers that he is not under influence of any sponsors or financial groups. He underscored that all so-far decisions including those halting overpriced PPP projects were followed their advantageousness for the whole country and not only for firms and banks. He informed that the ministry would submit a plan of construction of highways and dual carriageways in 2011-2014 to the Cabinet by the end of March.
SITA