Cabinet gives “good to go” to Bratislava bypass

On Wednesday, the government gave the green light to Transport, Construction and Regional Development Minister Roman Brecely to sign the contract for the construction of the Bratislava bypass. An expert commission that was appointed by the minister to review the contract hasn't found any discrepancies. "We've managed to put a provision on letterbox companies in the contract. We'd like all the firms participating in this public contract to have unambiguous ownership structures," emphasised Brecely. The Transport Minister will now get in touch with the consortium that won the public procurement to sign the contract. "I assume that the construction work will begin this summer or autumn," he stated. The Zero Bypass consortium led by the Spanish firm Cintra won the public tender for the construction and has pledged to build the section in four years and four months for annual instalments of over €56 million over 30 years of operating the road, which will then be transferred into state ownership. After 30 years and with inflation taken into account the bypass should cost around €1.9 billion.