HISTORY
Everything has begun by that the central budget was short. At the end of the eighties the government has no resources for the construction of new motorways but neither for the maintenance of the existing roads as well.
In 1988 the Ministry of Transport had examined the possible introduction of a vignette system on the existing motorways and a batch of vignettes were produced in 1989 but they were never implemented.
Finally, instead of the idea of the vignettes a Road Fund was established in 1990, the main income of which was a special tax built into the fuel price.
The need for the development of the public road infrastructure was recognised by the first democratic government in 1990 and a plan of 473 kilometres of new motorway and 112 kilometres of highway was elaborated.
The decision-makers relying on some optimistic economic forecasts thought that they can shift the financial burdens of those developments completely onto the participants of the traffic.
The legal background, the Law on Concessions was passed the Parliament in September 1991.
The first concession motorway tender was launched in 1992 for the missing section of M1 and M15 between Hungary and Austrian/Slovakian borders (43 and 14 km).
The Project was a BOT type with no government guarantee. The government contribution included the basic design, the site, archaeology but no other contribution.
The section of the motorway of M1 between Györ and Hegyeshalom was opened for traffic 4 January 1996. However, it came to light quickly that the Hungarian motorists do not favour the tolls. The lawsuits and protests connected to the idea and level of tolls started soon after the opening of the section.
The sponsors and the lenders suspended the further construction of M15 for a year, and finally the Project was nationalised due to financial difficulties in 1999. From January 1, 2000 vignette system was introduced, common with M3.
The construction of M5 (towards Yuguslavia) concession motorway started in 1996 after 3 years of discussions between the government, lenders and the sponsors. The state contribution to the Project was significant including an existing section of 56 km highway and an operational subsidy in the first 13 semesters.
The Phase 1 from Budapest to Kiskunfélegyháza (in total of 97 km) was opened as a toll motorway in June 1998. The inhabitants of settlements along the parallel road had protested and special discount systems were introduced for the different users groups.
The concession tender for the motorway M3 (towards Ukraine) was issued in 1994 but after 2 years of discussions it was qualified as unsuccessful.
A 100% state company was established to finance, build and operate the motorway (58 km existing and
40 km new ) including toll collection.
The introduction of toll has been twice postponed due to public tensions and now vignettes system is operated on it.
The Road Fund was dissolved in the beginning of 1999 and a new organisation, the National Motorway Development Co was established in second half of 1999 in charge for the development of the motorway network. The new company is a subsidy of the Development Bank of Hungary (99%) and the Ministry of Transport (1%).
According to the new plans of the present government 600 km of new highway has to be constructed in the next 5 years financed by local banks and operated as vignette motorways.
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