Budapest local government plans to renovate Chain Bridge among other projects

Budapest, May 19 (MTI) – Budapest mayor, István Tarlós, has announced plans to renovate the city’s iconic Chain Bridge and remodel Blaha Lujza Square in central Budapest.

Speaking at an AmCham event on Thursday, Tarlós said the Buda Castle tunnel was also a contender for renovation and plans are to revamp the Cog-Wheel railway, extending it to Széll Kálmán Square in one direction and all the way to Normafa Hill in the other.

The Chain Bridge and tunnel reconstruction is estimated to cost 18 billion forints, the Blaha Lujza tér project 1.5 billion and the cog-wheel line extension some 23 billion, he said. Tarlós said the Széll Kálmán Square reconstruction had already been designed and completed with the cog-wheel extension in mind.

Tarlos said the projects would be carried out with a loan from the European Investment Bank which the government had approved.

Another project on the list of EU-supported investments is one to build a new waste management and sludge incinerator works. Passengers’ use of metro 4 is “not yet satisfactory” but this is expected to rise when parallel services are made less frequent, Tarlós said.

On the subject of a congestion charge in the city centre, he said its introduction was “inevitable”. “If we don’t introduce it by the end of 2017 there’ll be big trouble,” he added.

Photto: MTI

Source: http://mtva.hu/hu/hungary-matters