Hungary to spend massively on road, rail developments

MTI – Econews

The government will spend HUF 4 trillion on developing roads and railways by 2022 in order to strengthen Hungaryʼs position in logistics, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Peter Szijjártó said today.

Some 900 kms of high-speed roads will be built from HUF 2.5 trillion in the coming years, 55% of which will be paid for from the central budget and 45% from European Union funds, the minister said, national new agency MTI reported.

A total of HUF 1.5 trillion will be spent on railway developments, modernizing 900 kms of tracks, he added. The developments will extend the length of Hungaryʼs electrified railway network to 3,300 kms, Szijjártó said.

Ongoing and completed developments include the electrification of a railway link between Budapest and Sloveniaʼs Koper. A new bridge on the River Danube at Komárom is already under construction and will be suitable for freight transport from the first quarter of 2022, Szijjártó said.

Five new border crossings will be built in cooperation with the Slovak government and the EU funding won for this development will also enable the building of two bridges on the River Ipoly. Preparations have been made at Rajka to expand the road linking Budapest and Bratislava to two lanes each way, Szijjártó said. During talks in Beijing last week, an agreement was signed about the final timetable for the modernization of the Budapest-Belgrade railway link, he added.

He also said that the prime ministers of the Visegrad Four group have agreed to prepare the development of a high-speed railway link between Budapest, Bratislava, Brno and Warsaw. The Hungarian government has approved HUF 1.5 billion for the feasibility study of this project, he added.

An agreement has also been signed with the Romanian government about a high-speed rail link between Budapest and Cluj-Napoca. The Hungarian government has approved HUF 1 bln for the feasibility study, Szijjártó said.