“Everything will have to be rethought and re-calculated,” PM Viktor Orbán said in Szolnok, central Hungary, referring to the troubled construction project of Hungary’s M4 motorway. “The M4 will be built, but not as a motorway but as a major highway,” he said after agreements for developments in Szolnok were signed on Wednesday with Mayor Ferenc Szalai. Plans to connect the city with Budapest by a motorway suffered a major setback in March after the Hungarian government ordered the freeze of construction of a section of the M4 motorway due to suspicion of cartel activity raised by the European Commission.
Szolnok is a civic city but this requires funds, jobs and companies, which the city has provided in recent years, Viktor Orbán told the joint press conference held in Szolnok. The Prime Minister also said that Szolnok will receive a new 300 hectare industrial park. Earlier, the government granted HUF 529 million to support the improvement of the Hungarian Railways (MÁV) sports facility in Szolnok and will now appropriate another HUF 1 billion for the development of the city beach, he added. Other planned developments include an industrial park, sports and arts facilities, a dock development as well as the upgrade of the leafy Tiszaliget area. Talks are still under way about moving the national water management headquarters to Szolnok, the Prime Minister said. Under another plan, Szolnok-manufactured train carriages will be promoted for use by Hungarian rail, he added.
Mayor of Szolnok, Ferenc Szalay, said that the road construction between Abony and Fegyvernek, which has come to a halt, will “continue with a new idea”. One part is the northern bypass of Szolnok and the other is the section from Törökszentmiklós to Fegyvernek. The M4 will not remain incomplete and will come to completion on the planned route but with a different technical content, he said reffering to the new “highway” label. The Mayor also pointed out that the unemployment rate in Szolnok has dropped below 6 percent in the recent years. Another benefit is that the city, similarly to the nationwide economic development, has gained strength in economic terms: the 124 hectare industrial park is full and local taxpayers are exceptionally law-abiding. He added that Szolnok has 80-90 percent of local children in higher education and boasts of a flourishing culture.
PM Viktor Orbán visits all 23 cities of county status to sign cooperation agreements with local mayors for promoting the development of provincial cities. Under the arrangements of the Modern Cities scheme, the the Premier has signed similar deals with Sopron, Eger, Zalaegerszeg, Miskolc, Pécs, Debrecen and Székesfehérvár so far. “Without strong provincial towns and cities, there will be no strong villages, and we must therefore create provincial centres of influence”, Viktor Orbán said many times.
via kormany.hu and hungarymatters.hu photo: Szilárd Koszticsák – MTI