Prague’s mayor Bohuslav Svoboda says that the city has paid CZK 159m of the CZK 1.5bn it owes Metrostav, the general contractor of the Blanka tunnel. It’s the first payment the city’s made on the project since last May, after claiming that some of the changes to the original project were so significant that they would have to be investigated.
Metrostav welcomed the payment, but warned that it would be unwilling to continue on certain portions of the tunnel until the city officially approves that the work be undertaken. “If Prague doesn’t approve the work in two or three weeks, we won’t begin,” said Metrostav’s spokesman Frantisek Polak.
The ongoing tug-of-war looks set to continue, with Metrostav hoping to leverage the city’s desire to see the tunnel completed as soon as possible in order to speed up payments.
