Two in one: newest Hungarian-Slovak border bridge inaugurated for the second time

Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó inaugurated a bridge spanning the River Ipoly between Drégelypalánk, in northern Hungary, and Slovakia’s Ipelske Predmostie (Ipolyhídvég) in a formal ceremony on Monday.

The 50-metre St Borbala Bridge costing some 3 billion forints (EUR 7.6m) will allow drivers to cross the border in only a couple of minutes instead of driving 20 kilometres, Szijjártó said.

He noted that Hungary has the longest common border with Slovakia, adding that the 654km border section had only offered 22 crossing points back in 2010. With the new bridge added, the two countries now have 40 crossing points, he said.

Under an agreement signed in 2014 by the two countries’ leaders, the number of border crossings has been increased by 18, Szijjártó said.

“This is a real success story which needs to be continued, so we are prepared to build new bridges, roads and rail lines [connecting the two countries],” the foreign minister said.

The new bridge replaces a 15th-century one destroyed in the Second World War.

As we wrote earlier, Minister Szijjártó has already opened the bridge once, but at the time of the opening it was not possible to cross the bridge because the road leading to the bridge was flooded, details HERE.

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