Government to draw up bus production strategy

Budapest, May 11 (MTI) – The government has decided to draw up and implement a national strategy for bus production, government spokesman Zoltán Kovács said on Wednesday.

The strategy, to be implemented over three years, will ensure Hungarian bus production a place on the international stage in terms of quantity and quality, he said.

The government has asked the city council of Budapest to take into account the government’s intention in ongoing talks, he added.

The government recently rewrote the conditions for a loan from the European Investment Bank, preventing the Budapest city council from using the credit to buy 150 buses from Poland’s Solaris, the mayor of Budapest said in an interview with commercial broadcaster HírTV on Tuesday.

István Tarlós acknowledged that the decision was taken in the national interest, but noted that there is no bus production in Hungary at present. Buses that Hungary’s MABI-BUS could deliver to the capital have many of the same components as the Solaris buses, but are in knockdown kits, requiring assembly, and are more expensive than the Polish buses, he added.

Budapest needs the buses to shuttle passengers while its number three metro line undergoes a renovation.

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