PM to decree on huge roads, trains plan

The fate of the enormous development plan for Israel's rail and road system designed by a prime ministerial adviser, which has appalled treasury officials, will be decided on by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tomorrow.

Adviser Uri Yogev's plan boils down to building tracks between central Israel and the unemployment-ridden periphery, including the Red Sea resort city of Eilat, and extending the Trans-Israel Highway to Shlomi in the north and Mashavei Sadeh in the south. Highways in the Galilee would also be widened.

Yogev, himself a former budget director at the treasury (seven years ago), estimates the cost of the plan he raised 10 months ago at NIS 51 billion spread over 15 years, but budget officials project a cost nearer NIS 84 billion.

Transport Minister Yisrael Katz supports Yogev's plan. The Finance Ministry does not, arguing that the projects are neither essential nor economically feasible. Finance officials are also concerned about how to fund the ambitious program and have raised the possibilities of increasing tax on gasoline or abolishing Eilat's exemption from VAT.

Treasury officials also note that almost none of the projects Yogev proposes have undergone planning scrutiny. Some are at such a preliminary stage that even estimates of cost have not been made.

If the plan is approved, it would become the responsibility of the Israel National Roads Company and the Trans-Israel Highway Corporation, both government companies.

The presentation of the plan states that 40% of Israel's population is concentrated in the greater Tel Aviv area, where 50% of the jobs in Israel are to be found. That situation perpetuates the marginalized status of the periphery, boosting unemployment there to as much as 8% in the north compared with 5% in the center. Yogev aims to achieve a more uniform distribution of the population, of activity and of living standards. The working assumption behind the plan is that accessibility is key to achieving a more equal society.

Both the Finance Ministry and professional echelon at the Transport Ministry argue that the plan is demographically senseless, non-essential from the perspective of transport, prohibitive, and technically impossible in parts. They also say it won't achieve its aims.

The controversy can be broken down by sections of the plan. For instance, the Transport Ministry agrees that a good road from Afula to Kedarim is essential, and the prime minister's officials and the Finance Ministry agree that the cost would run at about NIS 2 billion. There is no consensus over the need to extend the Trans-Israel Highway to Mashavei Sadeh, and while the prime minister's office estimates the cost at NIS 2 million, the treasury thinks it will run double that amount.

The Finance Ministry declined to comment for this report, saying its representatives would elaborate on its position to the prime minister.