Wishful thinking? Ťok targets 2019 for ring road permit

The Czech Minister of Transportation Dan Ťok has told journalists he believes the state will receive a building permit for the next portion of the Prague outer ring road by the end of 2019. The plan is to build the section that would allow express road communications between the the D1 motorway leading from Brno and the D8, which leads to Usti nad Labem and on to Dresden. It's an ambitious time plan, given that the minister also said the state would be submitting documentation for zoning planning the near future and that land acquisitions would still have to be coordinated with the City of Prague. The ambitious time plan test claims by the government that it intends to get serious about cutting through the bureaucratic black hole that often stands between the goals of investors and the mythical construction permit.

Plans to build the Prague ring road go back to the 1990's. But the state has found it just as difficult to secure the necessary planning as private investors. Rather than doing anything about it, however, government after government has ignored the issue. The current regime is the first in years to even begin talking about it, so the private sector is now watching closely to see if action follows words.