German contractors looking for more infrastructure work may find it coming in an unexpected form: war bunkers.
The president of the country鈥檚 Federal Agency for Civil Protection and Disaster Relief, Ralph Tiesler, told German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung last week that his agency will 鈥渜uickly create one million shelter spaces鈥�.
He said it would need at least 鈧�10bn in the next four years and 鈧�30bn in the following 10 years to build them.
鈥淔or a long time, there was a widespread belief in Germany that war was not a scenario we needed to prepare for. That has changed. We are concerned about the risk of a major war of aggression in Europe,鈥� he told the newspaper, CNN reports.
Germany has just 580 bunkers now, many of them not operational.
That鈥檚 down from nearly 2,000 during the Cold War.
Now, just 5% of the German population could find shelter in an attack, according to Sueddeutsche Zeitung.
Tiesler said his agency will upgrade metro stations, tunnels, underground garages and basements of public buildings.
鈥淣ew bunker systems with very high protection requirements cost a lot of money and time,鈥� he said.
His agency will be counting on a share of the 鈧�500bn emergency infrastructure fund the Bundestag approved in March (see further reading).
- Subscribe here to get stories about construction around the world in your inbox three times a week
Further Reading:
