PRIME Minister Tony Abbott has reignited a war of words with Premier Daniel Andrews over the scrapped East West Link as he unveiled a “blame Labor” mobile billboard this morning.

Mr Abbott, who unveiled the billboard with Victorian opposition leader Matthew Guy said it was “almost criminal” to spend nearly $1 billion to scrap the cross-city road project.

He has met twice with Mr Andrews, but said he had only received a four paragraph letter from the Premier outlining the government’s proposed alternative, the Western Distributor.

“There is no cost benefit analysis, no detail. It is really just a thought bubble at this state,” Mr Abbott said.

“Every Melburnian knows what it’s like to be stuck in traffic on Flemington Rd, Alexander Pde, Hoddle St.

“It is just unacceptable in the 21st century. Melbourne is not a village, it’s a great international city and that is why it needs a proper roads system.”

The billboard, unveiled at a garden supplies centre in Ringwood East, is set to tour Melbourne’s streets.

media_camera Prime minister Tony Abbott in Ringwood to unveil the billboard. Picture: David Crosling

Mr Abbott said $3 billion remained available in Tuesday’s budget for the Victorian Government to build the East West Link.

But he said the Federal Government would not “dud Victoria” and would consider any nationally-significant road proposal that had “serious Victorian Government input”.

“If the Victorians come up with a decent proposal, the $1.5 billion we gave them for East West Link could be used for that,” he said.

“We are so committed to East West Link that we gave the Victorian Government $1.5 billion to actually get cracking.

“They decided instead of getting on with East West Link to cancel the project, sack hundreds of workers, forgo 7000 jobs and pay $1 billion.

“They can’t keep money and do nothing with it. It is utterly wrong to keep money that was given to them for the East West Link and use it for nothing.”

media_camera Premier Daniel Andrews says money for the scrapped East West Link won’t be returned to Canberra. Picture: Jay Town

The Prime Minister’s comments come after Mr Andrews warned he would need “good luck” if the Federal government demanded Victoria hand back the $1.5 billion planned for the scrapped project.

“Good luck to Tony Abbott if he comes to Victoria and takes that $1.5 billion away,” Mr Andrews said 10 days ago.

“I don’t think Victorians would take too kindly to a Prime Minister who says he is an ‘infrastructure Prime Minister’ but if he did (take the money back) he wouldn’t want to build any.”

Victorian opposition leader Matthew Guy said new road, rail and port infrastructure was essential for Melbourne.

“Melbourne is numerically the fastest growing city in Australia so it is quite outstanding that the Labor government here in Victoria is spending nearly $1 billion not to build our most needed piece of road infrastructure,” he said.

“Melbourne will have fewer infrastructure projects on the go than Darwin.

“To run away and play politics with infrastructure and construction in Victoria as Daniel Andrews and Labor are doing is very short sighted and will leave this city worse off.

“To deny that the East West Link is an essential piece of our infrastructure armoury for the future is to stick your head in the sand when it comes to traffic problems in the Eastern suburbs of Melbourne.”

@MoniqueHore