Budapest has drawn up plans to renovate Népliget, beginning with the construction of an irrigation system using an existing greywater pipeline beneath the park, Mayor Gergely Karácsony said on Tuesday.
The capital is seeking the government’s cooperation to implement the plans and further develop the park, Karácsony said on Facebook, noting that the state is also a co-owner of Népliget.
He said the park could now break out of what he described as a decades-long ‘negative spiral’, pointing to several developments planned in the surrounding area.
The new government plans to renovate Budapest’s Planetarium, while the Transport Museum is to be built near Népliget. The park, which already has good public transport connections, is also set to receive a new railway station as part of the Southern Railway Ring development.
‘Only the park itself needs to regain its vitality’, Karácsony said.
The mayor also defended his support for the government’s plans to renovate the Planetarium, after what he described as attacks by pro-Fidesz media over his position.
Karácsony said the renovation of the existing, roughly 2,000-square-metre Planetarium building could not be compared with the previous government’s plans to construct tens of thousands of square metres of new buildings in the City Park, including a planned National Gallery.
He also argued that the two parks face fundamentally different problems.
‘The City Park suffers from overuse, while Népliget suffers from underuse,’ Karácsony said. He added that the park’s low visitor numbers contributed to social problems that in turn discouraged even more people from using the area.
Karácsony recalled that Népliget once housed Budapest’s largest restaurant. The heritage-protected building was demolished about a decade ago as part of plans for a new ‘Fradiváros’ development, which was ultimately not built, he said.
The mayor questioned what happened to the funding allocated to the project, saying the new government was justified in asking where the money had gone.
He also noted that the Planetarium has stood empty for more than a decade. At the same time, the previous government spent roughly 20 times the amount needed for its renovation on stadiums on the other side of Üllői Road.
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