Hungary to complete EUR 8bn road upgrades by 2022 – UPDATE

Budapest, September 15 (MTI) – The government has approved 2.5 trillion forints (EUR 8bn) worth of public road upgrades in Hungary to be completed by 2022, government office chief János Lázár said on Thursday.

Under the cabinet’s Wednesday decision, 81 major roads will be upgraded and some 1,000 kilometres of dual carriageways will be built, with financing from national and European Union sources, Lázár said.

In addition a 1.1 trillion forint railway upgrade project was also given the go ahead, which will include renovating the Nyugati (Western) and Keleti (Eastern) railway stations in Budapest, and creating a circular railway around Lake Balaton, Lázár added.

In other transport-related news, the long distance coach company Volán will purchase 180 new buses for 22-24 billion forints, in line with a proposal made by the economic cabinet.

UPDATE

Lázár said the government has approved a development plan for Pest county. The government has allocated 80 billion forints for developments in that area. Municipal governments, micro companies, SMEs, churches and NGOs will receive 5 billion forints in 2016, 25 billion forints next year and later a further 50 billion forints to carry out the developments, Lázár said.

He said the government would provide 44 billion forints for the upgrade of the University of Physical Education. The first phase of the upgrade will cover a revamp of the university’s existing facilities and a new building will be added to it in 2018, Lázár said.

Lázár said the prime minister has guaranteed on behalf of the government the implementation of the next phase of Budapest’s Olympic bid.

Regarding the state of the economy, Lázár said 660,000 jobs have been created since 2010 and the government is exploring ways to further boost economic growth. One of the ways to achieve this could be payroll tax cuts, he said.

Commenting on DK leader Ferenc Gyurcsány’s remarks from Wednesday suggesting that Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and House Speaker László Kövér had been involved in organising the anti-government riots in 2006, Lázár said Gyurcsány’s remarks were “dirty lies”.

Regarding the government’s decision to classify the details of the reaquisition of the Seuso treasures for 30 years, Lázár said the move was necessary so as not to undermine Hungary’s reaquisition of the remaining treasures. Once the remaining pieces are recovered, the details surrounding their reaquisition will be declassified, he said.

Photo: MTI

Source: MTI