The number of drones in the Czech Republic has been growing. While there are about one thousand registered drones used by professionals, there will be tens of thousand of drones for recreational use. Pilotless flying offers huge opportunities for the future and the Czech Republic wants to be among the European leaders in this field. The "Smart Sky" concept aims at introducing a testing environment following the current trends in the Czech Republic.
Four consortia will face each other in the final round of the competition for the extension and operation of 32 km of the D4 motorway between Písek and Příbram. This was decided by Transport Minister Dan Ťok following the analysis of seven applications. The competition will start at the beginning of 2019 and the winner could start building the entire motorway section in 2020.
The government approved the proposal of the Ministry of Transportation about a loan from the European Investment Bank for the construction and modernisation of railways between 2019 and 2025. Up to CZK 11.5 billion can be drawn down. To be specific: the money can be for example spent on two sections Velim – Poříčany and Dětmarovice – Petrovice u Karviné – state border with Poland, the preparation of which is most advanced.
Today the Czech Republic won the vote of the PIARC Council in Japan on which country shall organise the World Road Congress. This means that in 2023 Prague will see the arrival of traffic experts from all the world. Our capital will follow up the 14th World Road Congress which took place in Prague in 1971.
The Ministry of Transport accommodated some remarks and proposes the free-of-charge use of three motorway sections in a total length of 13 km in its new regulation. Starting from next year, drivers could be using the sections D11 Sedlice – Kukleny (exits 84 – 90), D35 Sedlice – Opatovice nad Labem (exits 126 – 129) and D48 Frýdek-Místek – Dobrá (km 50 – exit 54) without the motorway sticker. A total of 199 km of motorways are already free of charge – mostly city bypasses or those crossed by category I roads. The exemption of these motorways sections did not have any impact on the sales of motorway stickers.
The water corridor project connecting the Danube, Odra and Elbe rivers is economically efficient in terms of transportation, water management, energy and recreational use. A connection between Danube and Odra received a better assessment, the Elbe branch of the corridor lowers the effectiveness of the entire project. Evaluating the benefits of an investment amounting up to CZK 582 billion, the feasibility study has confirmed this after two years of work.