The construction of the M9 motorway will begin with the section between Zalaegerszeg and Vasvár, János Lázár said in an interview published in the local newspaper Zalai Hírlap on Thursday.

The Minister heading the Prime Minister’s Office, who visited Zalaegerszeg in the company of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán on Tuesday as part of an event of the programme Modern Cities, highlighted that Zalaegerszeg is a locality with poor accessibility in an economic and business sense, and the Government therefore adopted two decisions in agreement with the Mayor of the city.

The construction of additional lanes on road 76 to enlarge this main route to a four-lane express road must be completed so that the express road between Zalaegerszeg and Balatonszentgyörgy may join the M7 motorway by 2018.

"It is equally important for Zalaegerszeg to gain better accessibility to the western border, and therefore the construction of the track of the M9 motorway will begin here; the first section may be completed between Zalaegerszeg and Vasvár”. Construction works will begin by 2018, the Minister stated.

He said that the M9 and M8 motorways will meet at the town of Vasvár. As a result, heavy vehicular traffic may be conducted to the state border on the M8. Consequently, “the Government undertakes such an immense financial sacrifice, which may amount to as much as a hundred billion forints, specifically with a view to extending Zalaegerszeg’s economic and business opportunities”. Route 76 will be constructed from local fiscal allocations, while the section of the M9 between Zalaegerszeg and Vasvár will be built with the involvement of EU funds.

János Lázár also said that Zala County will have access to EU funds in the magnitude of more than HUF 42 billion in total: during the multiannual development period between 2014-2020, Zala County will have HUF 23 billion at its disposal in EU grants, Zalaegerszeg will have an allocation in excess of HUF 11 billion, while the town of Nagykanizsa may draw on an EU allocation of some HUF 8 billion for the implementation of its own projects.

In answer to the question whether the planned settling in Hungary of the automobile manufacturing company Tata may have implications for Zala County, the Minister said: „the Government has a vested interest in the settling of industry in Zalaegerszeg within the foreseeable future”, whether automobile or any other industry. They agreed with the Mayor of the city that if the Government has talks with any large foreign industrial investor, Zalaegerszeg will be the first on the list to be offered as a site.

At his press conference held on Tuesday, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán mentioned the development that is currently taking place in the Zala County Hospital among the projects which are under way at present. The contemplated structural changes in the operation of the hospital raised concerns in other towns in the county. In this context, János Lázár pointed out that the Government would like to provide quality health care for every Hungarian citizen and contributes to the attainment of this goal with hospital infrastructure developments worth HUF 500 billion. This will bring about significant changes in Zalaegerszeg as well.

The Minister argued that the standard of hospital care will also improve significantly during the period ahead, but this may not cause a disadvantage to anyone. “No one will lose out on the developments in Zalaegerszeg; this is a consideration that we shall specifically focus on”, Mr Lázár said.

(MTI/Prime Minister's Office)