Construction company Duna Aszfalt has agreed to refund the state HUF 59bn of an advance payment for a bridge it is building across the Danube at Mohács (Southwest Hungary), Transportation and Investment Minister Dávid Vitézy said in a post on Facebook on Monday.
New deal struck concerning the new Danube bridge
Vitézy noted that János Lázár, the head of the transportation portfolio under the former Fidesz-KDNP government, had decided to raise the advance payment rate for the project from 20pc to 98pc just two days ahead of the election in April.
Vitézy said the government was also seeking to recover HUF 76bn in additional costs related to a decision taken by Lázár to build a 20km expressway connecting to the bridge, even though traffic volume was not expected to require the link for 25 years or more.
Public interest in the last place
He called the bridge project a “typical NER story“, using a Hungarian acronym referring to companies that benefitted from big state contracts under the Fidesz-KDNP government: “All other interests superseded those of the public”.
He added that the government would not shelve the bridge project as it could not be reversed. In a separate statement on Monday, Duna Aszfalt confirmed it would refund the advance payment and said future payments for the project would take place on a monthly basis, linked to milestones.
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