Brno took the first step towards bringing the tram to the campus

Brno - Brno city councilors have taken the first step towards extending the tram line to the Bohunice campus of Masaryk University. Currently, only trolleybuses and buses operate there, and they are often overcrowded during peak hours. The area is also continuing to develop. Experts have preliminarily estimated the construction cost of the line to be 845 million crowns. They will provide a more precise figure in the investment plan, which the councilors have commissioned, said Deputy Mayor Robert Kotzian (ODS) to journalists today.
    According to Kotzian, the construction, assuming everything goes smoothly, will be completed in seven years. Once the investment plan is developed, the designers could begin working on documents for the zoning permit. When the authorities issue the zoning decision, the documentation for the building permit will follow. According to Kotzian, these processes, including the issuance of the permit, can ideally take five years.
    "Funding will depend on how this construction is viewed in five years. I assume the necessity will remain the same, but the funding depends on tax collection for the state budget," he stated. In recent years, the city has been losing about three-quarters of a billion crowns annually due to lower tax collections. According to the deputy, the city hall will try to obtain grants if possible.
    The tracks to the campus are to start from the current stop at Osová. The extension is expected to be about a kilometer long, and the line will pass under the current Mikulášek Square.
    Thousands of university students and researchers commute daily to lectures, seminars, and laboratories at the Masaryk University campus. Nearby is the main complex of the Faculty Hospital Brno, the largest in southern Moravia, which is also set to expand. Plans include the construction of a new maternity ward.
    Kotzian described the area as possibly the most dynamically developing part of Brno. "The campus is continuously growing; currently, the CETOCOEN institute is under construction, and in the future, one of the branches of the CEITEC institute (Central European Institute of Technology) will also be based on the campus," he stated.