Magna promises ind.rail track to assuage environmental concerns
The Austrian-Canadian company, which is still waiting for a full environmental permit, had originally planned to use trucks for transport.
It has now committed in a public letter to building the industrial rail track at the facility already in the first phase of the investment in the Hoče-Slivnica municipality.
The Economy Ministry, a strong supporter of the investment, explained that an intense search for solutions had been under way in recent days, which involved the NGO Umanotera as well as the Infrastructure Ministry.
Umanotera, one of 12 third-party participants in the environmental permit procedure, has been highlighting the impact of traffic emissions on air quality and public health and had announced it would challenge the environmental approval, a preliminary okaying of the project.
The public commitment by Magna Steyr has made it change its mind, even though the NGO reiterated its concerns about the investment's compatibility with a sustainable development model and the sacrificing of quality farmland for the project.
Potential appeals against the environmental approval have unofficially also been announced by some of the other third parties and it seems that not all have been swayed.
A nod came today from the TRS Movement for Slovenia's Sustainable Development, which said it had decided against an appeal because it understood the social distress in the region and because of the clearly expressed readiness of most of the locals to accept the potential environmental risks.
TRS, however, took the opportunity to again condemn the choice of the location, Magna's "extortion" with a backup location in Hungary and "the servile reaction of our government".
Alpe Adria Green said today it had 15 days to decide on a potential appeal, with a decision expected this week, while at least one appeal, by E-Forum or its head Gorazd Marinček, seems likely at this point.
Marinček welcomed Magna's announcement but responded to Umanotera's withdrawal by saying E-Forum also wants the investor to meet its remaining two demands, related to water and fire safety.
Marinček said at a meeting in Maribor today that an appeal would be filed next week, while he moreover surprised with the claim that the request for the granted environment approval had been filed by an unauthorised person, which could complicate things further.
Magna has indicated that due to its deadlines any appeals would mean a termination of the project in Slovenia, which is expected to secure a few hundred jobs in the first phase. The company said it has a backup location in Hungary.
The letter by Magna, which says the company "welcomes the announcement of the construction of a railway track to the Hoče plant", meanwhile indicates that an extension of the nearby railway tracks is to be provided to the plant.
"Magna assures that industrial railways within the Hoče plant will be built in the first phase in order to have a positive impact on the air."
"If a track is built up to the plant and Magna expands its plant from a paint shop to a fully developed auto plant (phases 2 and 3), we intend to carry out train transportation as well to optimize our operations to the greatest extent possible," the letter says.
Ministry of Infrastructure said today that the tracks to Magna plant would be built in two stages. The first stage is to see the public railway infrastructure expanded to the Maribor airport. Then Magna is to link its industrial track with the new airport-bound track.
The airport and the Magna plant site are located very close to each other and close to the existing railway connecting Ljubljana and Maribor.
The new track is to branch off from the existing tracks between the stops of Rače and Hoče, near where the tracks pass over the A1 motorway south of Maribor.
The ministry also said that Magna Steyr has been involved in the development of the plan since January. The price tag for the first stage - the construction of the track leading to the airport - is EUR 4.3m, according to the ministry.