Page 23 - bne_newspaper_May 5 2017

Weekly Lists
May 5, 2017 www.intellinews.com I Page 23
bne:
Infrastructure
No new Slovak roads without releasing debt brake, claims minister
Poland's PKP Cargo set to take full control of Czech rail freight peer AWT
Slovakia cannot build any more new roads without scrapping the debt brake, the transport minister claimed on May 4. The claim is just the latest from a government that has sought for some time to evade, or preferably dismantle, the constitutional limit on state borrowing.
Transport and Construction Minister Arpad Ersek insists new ten- ders for the construction of highways can't be announced before securing the necessary funds. Therefore, it's now necessary to wait for a proposal to appear in parliament on releasing the public debt brake, he stated, according to TASR.
"If the [proposal on relieving the] debt brake isn't passed, we won't have the financial resources for major projects," said Ersek. How- ever, he lamented that he has no hints that parliament would pass such a motion.
Czech company Minezit SE plans to exercise a put option it holds on a 20% stake in Czech rail frieght unit AWT, Poland's PKP Cargo, the majority owner in AWT, announced on May 4.
PKP Cargo and Minezit agreed the put option in 2014, as the state- controlled Polish rail freight operator paid €100mn to disgraced czech oligarch Zdenek Bakala for 80% of AWT. The listed Polish giant described the deal at the time as part of an international expansion.
However, the new government in Warsaw has said it will probe the transaction for negligence or worse. The exercise of the put option, which is now worth €27mn, is unlikely to help smooth that over.
Two elderly German tourists travelling to the remains of the ancient Iranian city of Pasargadae died when their bus swerved and tipped over into a ditch in a remote part of Iran’s Fars Province, Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting reported on May 2.
The roads of the Islamic Republic are known as some of the most dangerous in the world. Recent data released by the traffic police show that during the first two days of the Iranian New Year Nowruz holidays in March at least 145 people were killed in road accidents and 2,950 were injured nationwide. However, in the same period last year 389 died in highway carnage.
In all, road accidents in Iran kill or injure around 17,000 people a year. The scale of the problem is usually put down to weak enforce- ment of traffic rules, too many old and poorly maintained vehicles on the highways and a lack of quality emergency services.
Bus crash deaths
of German tourists illustrate Iran's dire roads