Socialists: 30 million euros additional funds needed for Chain Bridge revamp

Budapest’s municipality lacks 10 billion forints (EUR 30.0m) in funds for the planned reconstruction of the city’s iconic Chain Bridge, and will have to curb the technical aspects of the revamp should the government not top up funding, the group leader of the opposition Socialists in the Budapest Assembly said on Wednesday.

Speaking to a press conference ahead of the first assembly meeting this year, Csaba Horváth said the “high prices set by companies close to the government” stop the city from launching the reconstruction.

The works “were supposed to start already in 2011”,

Horváth noted. The assembly is now reviewing the technical plans with a view to identifying details that could be left off due to lack of money, he said.

On another topic, Horvath called it “laudable” that the city council abandoned the previous city council’s flood prevention plans on the Danube’s northern embankment, which “would have ruined the Romai shoreline forever”, and plans to set up flood protection along the old levee, a few metres inland.