Ságvári Ágnes (szerk.): Budapest. The History of a Capital (Budapest, 1975)
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number of roofs to be repaired is around 9,000. At the moment repair work is in progress on 5,800 of the houses owned by the city. About 35 per cent of the streets and roads of the city were destroyed during the siege. About 90 per cent of these have been reconstructed. We also have made plans for a largescale reconstruction of Budapest. A new survey of Budapest will be undertaken, the land registry, now destroyed, will be reconstituted, and the plan for rebuilding Budapest will be constantly reviewed while in the process of development. Now this fascist war, which has brought such calamity on us, is over, a rebuilt Budapest should at last rid us of the narrow streets, the unsanitary houses, the lack of trees and parks, the neglect of our public buildings and institutions. The heads and workers of the Municipal Transport Company have also achieved a considerable success in the work of reconstruction. In May the company carried 301,539 passengers a day. By October we reached the daily figure of 1,705,723 passengers, and this has only proved possible, needless to say, by expanding the railway network and increasing the rolling stock. 394 vehicles were in service in May, and more than a thousand were in running condition by November. The haulage capacity of the Company in peace-time has been continuously increased, and this is one of the most important plans in the rebuilding of Budapest. The Company also made preparations for the large-scale transport of timber, coal and food, and a total of nearly 7,000 waggons has been delivered ... As far as possible, we have made efforts to deal with the social, political problems of the city. From May to October 1945 we increased the number of maternity care clinics from 6 to 13 and the number of day nurseries from 25 to 77. The number of district welfare centres before the war was 17, of which 2 were destroyed and 15 damaged; we increased their number to 23 by September this year. With the introduction of the family welfare system we have extended assistance to 20,750 families up to the present date. We have opened the People’s Hostel, which can now accommodate 317, and the total accommodation in our refuges and asylums for the homeless is 1,084 at present. We have taken measures to provide hot meals for the workers on the reconstruction sites, and for this purpose have set up 215 works canteens, and distributed several million midday meals. It is absolutely necessary for the future of Budapest to put our large thermal baths and springs back into condition. Some 30 per cent damage was done to the Saint Gellért Baths, 70 per cent to the Saint Gellért Hotel, 70 per cent to the Rudas Baths, 50 per cent to the mineral springs, 80 per cent to the Saint Imre Baths, around 10 per cent to the Széchenyi Baths. Today all the medicinal baths and springs owned by the city are in operation. The work of reconstruction is continuing in each of them. We also turned our attention to the rebuilding and reorganization of the municipal schools. The number of usable school buildings was 42 in May, and 118 in November. The number of usable classrooms was 520 in May, and 1,616 in November. The number of students was 31,253 in May, and 65,871 in November. The number of active teachers grew from 1,716 to 3,914 between May and November. I am proud to report that in the reconstruction and organization of teaching the schools under city management are far ahead of the state schools in the city. We also exerted ourselves in the extension of opportunities for cultural improvement for the inhabitants of the city. The work of the adult education-centre has been energetically developed, we have increased the number of branch libraries attached to the Municipal 120
