After lockdown: government builds expressway to Budapest Airport

The state budget will pay HUF 1.4 billion (EUR 3.9 million) to FŐMTERV-UTIBER for the plans of a new and modern motorway connecting the downtown of Budapest with the airport of the Hungarian capital. However, there is no news about the superfast train connection the government promised to build.

According to mfor.hu, FŐMTERV Mérnöki Tervező Zrt. and its subcontractor, UTIBER Közúti Beruházó Kft., are going to compile the plans to modernise the road connecting the downtown with the airport. The work will cost a net amount of HUF 1.395 billion. Based on the European public procurement report, the plans will include bridges and urban environment development, too.

Experts said that the construction works would not start until mid-2022, so an optimistic projection is that the new road will be

ready by the end of 2023.

The government announced the ambitious plans in 2018 because Hungary became a popular destination for tourists coming from all over the world. In 2019, Minister Gergely Gulyás stated that the administration allocated HUF 20 billion (EUR 55.87 million) for the project, so everybody believed that the preparations would start, but nothing happened.

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The winners of the current contract need to prepare all the plans needed for the authorities to enable the modernisation work. Furthermore, they have to acquire all the permissions and design the execution, too. 

As we reported in February 2020, Péter Ungár (Hungarian Greens, LMP) asked the Minister of Innovation and Technology when the plans for the new airport railway line the government talked about before would be realised. Tamás Schanda, one of the minister’s secretaries, answered in the name of László Palkovics. He said that the plans are already finished, and they already have the necessary permissions. He added that since

building a new railway line is very expensive, the government is planning to find a budget for it in the EU’s 2021-2027 financial aid programmes allocated for the development of public transport.

Mr Schanda highlighted that traffic at the Budapest airport has doubled since 2010, and the Liszt Ferenc International Airport welcomed more than 16 million passengers in 2019. Therefore, the ever-growing number of passengers demand a fast, comfortable, and environmentally friendly transport link between the airport and the downtown of the Hungarian capital.

Source: mfor.hu