<div>Water is leaking into the check-in hall of Prague's train station, it is awaiting reconstruction.</div>

Prague - Prague's main train station is likely facing another complicated reconstruction. Water is leaking into the roof of the passenger hall, which was reconstructed six years ago for 1.1 billion crowns by the Italian company Grandi Stazioni. The reconstruction could cost up to hundreds of millions of crowns. Above the hall runs the Prague ring road, and if it turns out that its operation needs to be limited, it will be a huge complication for Prague. Jakub Ptačinský, spokesman for the Czech Railways Administration (SŽDC), said this today. According to Grandi Stazioni, the agreement on the reconstruction of the hall did not involve the roofing.

Problems with water leaking and damage to the ceiling insulation were revealed by probes that SŽDC had carried out under the ring road and nearby parking lot. The Railway Administration, which took over the station in the middle of last year along with other stations from Czech Railways, is now conducting more extensive damage assessments. “Without them, it is not possible to determine the procedure for repairs and to specify the estimate of how much money the reconstruction will require,” Ptačinský added.

According to the Italian company, the leaking into the hall is not a new problem. “As for the roof of the new passenger hall, we can briefly state that it was neither the subject of the lease nor part of the revitalization of our company. The leaking, which also occurred during our presence at the station, posed a significant problem for us, as it threatened our investment,” the company told ČTK.

The former tenant of the Prague station, Grandi Stazioni, is suing due to the termination of cooperation with the railway administration last year. Grandi Stazioni was supposed to have leased the main station for 30 years based on a contract from 2003 if it had managed to reconstruct the entire building by October 16 last year. However, it failed to do so, and SŽDC subsequently refused to extend the lease.

The first of four disputes over the ownership of the historic Fant's building at the main station was lost by Grandi Stazioni at the first-instance court. The company questioned the transfer of the station in the lawsuit and wanted the court to determine that the station still belongs to Czech Railways or the state, which is managed by SŽDC. The court's decision is not yet final.

Another dispute concerns the ownership of the passenger hall. The third lawsuit pertains to the payment of more than 770 million crowns as compensation for the invested funds during the station’s reconstruction. Out of this sum, SŽDC paid the company 565 million crowns last year as eligible costs for the partial reconstruction of the station. The company then reduced the requested amount to about 210 million crowns. The last lawsuit seeks approximately 1.26 billion crowns for lost profits from further leasing of station spaces.

On Tuesday, the railway administration ceremonially opened the reconstructed historic roofing of the platform. It was a construction costing around 600 million crowns. Other significant parts of the reconstruction of Prague's largest station will follow. The side tracks of Fant's building still need to be repaired, and the platform needs to be modernized in the direction of the Vinohrady tunnels. At the end of August, SŽDC estimated the value of further repairs of the station at around one billion crowns.