The construction plot as it looked like in late March. (source: TASR)
The construction of the industrial park in Nitra, in which the brand new plant of the British Jaguar Land Rover should be built, may be delayed even though the launch of car production remains unchanged. The state admitted to a delay in a document published during the assessment of environmental impacts, the Sme daily wrote on April 11.
Based on original plans, the industrial park should have been completed already during the first half of 2016 while the start of construction of the plant was planned for the same time. Now the documents indicate the start of construction of the plant by the end of 2016. First cars should roll down from production lines in Nitra at the turn of 2018 and 2019, according to plan.
“All works are carried out according to the timetable and without delay in order the Slovak Republic meets its commitments resulting from the investment agreement with Jaguar Land Rover,” said Karolína Ducká, spokesperson of the Transport Ministry, as cited by Sme.
EIA for the car plant
While there will be no environmental impact assessment of the industrial park, impacts of the plant itself will be assessed. According to the Transport Ministry, it was the carmaker that proposed the assessment, Sme wrote.
The latest plans indicate that the plant should consist of a body shop as well as a paint shop, while the biggest change was made in the number of parking places. These were increased from 440 as originally indicated in the projects for construction of the industrial park to more than 4,000 in the plant’s plans. An environmental impact assessment (EIA) is obligatory as of 500 parking places. This is why firstly the District Court in Nitra decided that an EIA is not necessary for construction of the industrial park. At that time it was indicated that the EIA might significantly delay construction of the industrial park.
