Slovakian tunnel in funds dispute

There are questions over the funds available for Slovakia’s Visnove Tunnel project. A former Transport Minister believes that the Transport Ministry will face challenges finding €664 million needed to build the tunnel, which forms part of the D1 highway.
March 16, 2012 Read time: 1 min
There are questions over the funds available for Slovakia’s Visnove Tunnel project. A former Transport Minister believes that the Transport Ministry will face challenges finding €664 million needed to build the tunnel, which forms part of the D1 highway.

According to the former minister, 2875 Slovakia’s Ministry of Transport has €41 million/year in the budget for 2012-2014 when 1116 European Union funds are excluded from the picture. This €41 million/year is however already allocated to other transport projects.

To fund the tunnel, the Ministry of Transport may well have to ask for funds from the 1054 European Investment Bank but no agreement has been made to date. Some €150-180 million/year may be required for the five and a half years needed to complete the project, according to estimates.

However the current Transport Minister has said that the claims are not accurate, adding that €481 million was allocated for the national motorway company NDS in 2012. According to the serving Transport Minister funds from the EU funds amount to €259 million, co-funding to €47 million while there is some €175 million for projects built without EU funds.
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