State secretary Remkes of the Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment and minister Netelenbos of the Ministry of Transport, Public Works and Water Management, have reached agreement with the Municipality of Rotterdam regarding the renovation of RotterdamÂ's Central Railway Station and surrounding area.
Recently, on request of the State, Rotterdam adjusted its Masterplan in such a way that the whole project would be substantially cheaper.
The agreement now reached will allow the State to review the new Masterplan, where traffic and transport quality, urban quality and the costs involved will be reviewed. The review is expected to be finalized by June 1, 2002.
Together with the State the Municipality will draft the new Central Railway Station and its surrounding area, noticeably Stationsplein. These agreements entail practical issues such as modus operandi and cost allocations.
Parties state that presently the following amounts have been made availible to the project: € 54 mln (V&W) by MIT, € 54,4 mln by the Ministry of Housing and € 39 mln by Rotterdam.
All central railway station areas in the six big cities (Amsterdam-Zuidas, Arnhem, Breda, The Hague, Utrecht and Rotterdam) will see massive renovation between now and ten years. These projects are the so-called New Key Projects, due to the arrival of the High Speed Train East and South, requiring these railway station to be made suitable as stopovers, at the same time allowing the immediate environment of these stations to be renovated in to high-quality public transport junctions and top locations for the housing, offices and amenities as well.
(source: Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment)
