The parliamentary group of the left in the Brandenburg state parliament demands that Tesla and Giga Berlin pay for the expansion of the infrastructure in the area around the plant in Grünheide (Oder-Spree).
In the transport sector alone, the state government is planning to invest 78 million euros this year and next, said Christian Görke, transport policy spokesman for the Left, on Sunday. How much money will have to be spent in the following years and for daycare centers and schools cannot yet be foreseen.
When asked by the RBB public radio, the Brandenburg Ministry of Infrastructure confirmed that rails and roads are to be renovated or rebuilt "in the course of the settlement of Tesla" for 78 million euros. However, this money will not flow completely in 2020 and 2021. The majority, 48 million euros, should therefore only be invested from 2022 onwards.
For example, two streets are to be expanded and one new built directly on the Tesla property in Grünheide. Because these are state roads, the state is generally responsible for them. However, a change in the relevant development plan must first be approved by the municipality. The relevant documents will be available on-site and on the Internet until the beginning of December.
It seems unlikely that Tesla or the Giga Berlin will participate financially here. But a motorway exit on the site is also to be created. Completion could take some time because other construction work on the A10 motorway is initially planned from January. Therefore, in coordination with the Ministry of Infrastructure, Tesla intends to build temporary access and exit from the A10 to the site at its own expense in the coming months.
The Oder-Spree district expects that around 10,000 people will move to the district with Tesla employees, their relatives, and employees in the expected supplier industry. The demand for school and daycare places is therefore likely to increase. "We expect that Tesla will require investments in the social infrastructure," says Sascha Gehm, Head of Traffic, Order, and Environment in Oder-Spree. But he considers the fact that Tesla pays for daycare centers and schools to be "legally very questionable". The need for daycare and school places can hardly be attributed to Tesla with legal certainty. Instead, Gehm sees the municipalities as an obligation. "We hope that we will be able to refinance the investment through income tax and other taxes," he said.
This calculation is already evident in Erkner: The building of the Morus secondary school there should be expanded so that in future five classes can be formed in each year. Because of the expected arrival of Tesla, the Oder-Spree district is now planning to build the building for six parallel classes.
Armen Hareyan is the founder and the Editor in Chief of Torque News. He founded TorqueNews.com in 2010, which since then has been publishing expert news and analysis about the automotive industry. He can be reached at Torque News Twitter, Facebok, Linkedin and Youtube.