Someone’s lying in the fight over Prague’s railway route

by   CIJ iDesk I
2019-10-21   10:08
/uploads/posts/8131dc74a41d7532a94143954882968848ba3a55/images/airportbus.png

The latest plans for a railway connection to Prague's airport are being attacked by a Prague 6 politician, Roman Mejstřík, who claims developers are behind everything. Mejstřík is the chairman of the Collective for the Protection of Střešovic a Břevnov, a Prague 6 civic organization formed to block approval of the so-called "Southern Route" rolled out by the Czech Railway Authority (SZDC) in June. This route calls for tunnels to run from Veleslavin beneath Prague 6 rather than expanding an existing line that passes through residential districts. The tunnel option was one of the demands of Prague 6's political leadership before it approved the route. The current price tag for the project is estimated at CZK 40bn. The daily paper Denik published an email from Mejstřík to Czech prime minister in which he claims that tunnels for the new route threaten existing homes above it and that the new route avoids a project by the developer Radek Pokorny. SZDC has rejected the claims, showing that the new tunnel goes directly under Pokorny's project and that the modern machinery used to dig the tunnel will not create dangerous vibrations or shocks that would impact any buildings at ground level.