Romania’s Transport Ministry has drawn up the national Transport Master Plan.
Romania’ s Transport Ministry has drawn up a document setting up the overall sum of money required for the financing of infrastructure projects, standing at 45.45 billion Euros, by 2030. The Romanian Government endorsed the document, which specifically includes road, railway, naval and air infrastructure projects. What comes out as extremely interesting for Romania’s drivers and not only, is the fact that the master plan provides for the construction of 1,300 kilometers of motorways, worth 13. 7 billion Euros, and for 1,825 kilometers of express ways, worth 9. 9 billion Euros.
The construction of Trans-European and Trans-Regional roads has not been left out either, as well as improvement works on 2,800 kilometers of railway. The master plan also stipulates investment in the naval sector standing at roughly 3 billion Euros, or 1 billion Euros to be earmarked for the modernization of the “Henri Coanda” airport in Bucharest or airports in Timisoara, Cluj-Napoca or Iasi.
Some of the pundits raised their eyebrows at the aforementioned master plan, given that at present Romania has a mere 700 kilometers of motorway, of which only 600 kilometers have been built after 1990. However, infrastructure projects will receive financial support from the European Commission. We speak about 6.8 billion Euros, to be allocated by 2020. More details - from the European Commissioner for regional policy Corina Cretu.
Corina Cretu: ”From our point of view, the Commission’s, that is, the top priority of the Master Plan is first of all the implementation of the projects as part of the TEN-T main network, the Trans-European Transport Network meeting the deadline.”
Here is the General Director with the Transport Ministry Marcel Bolos with more details.
Marcel Bolos: ”The Master Plan, as a strategic document for the development of the transport infrastructure, must comply with a series of regulations the European Commission has in this respect. On Romanian territory, we have a series of Trans-European transport networks, namely the TEN-T Core network and the TEN-T Comprehensive network which we need to comply with. In other words, the moment we set up a route for a specific segment of the motorway, we need to take into account the Trans-European transport networks transiting Romania. By 2030, the Core Trans-European network will have to be completed, that is the core network, while the TEN-T Comprehensive transport network, will have to be completed by 2050. So the funds of the European Union will mainly and solely go to those networks or those motorway segments we have identified in the Master Plan.“
General director Marcel Bolos went on to say that the transport Master Plan also provided for standard costs of various projects:
Marcel Bolos: “We particularly paid heed to this aspect - the moment we have identified projects as part of the Master Plan, be they on highways, express roads, or any other projects, standard cost was the main rule. I’m going to give you an example on how we dealt with motorway projects, which is one of the most delicate and debated issues. We took into account the standard cost and the relief form the motorway was passing through. So, if we are referring to the construction of a mountain motorway, we were careful to keep it at 20 million Euros per kilometer. Then there was the mountain-hill combination of 12 million Euros per kilometer. In a hilly area the standard cost stood at 8 million Euros per kilometer, while in the plain it was 4.5 million Euros per kilometer. I would like to point out that we tried to keep the costs within normal parameters with the projects laid down in the Master Plan.”
Of great interest to Romanian and foreign transporters as well as to drivers in general is the construction of the Pitesti – Sibiu motorway section, part of the European transport corridor one:
Marcel Bolos: “Drawing up a feasibility study will be the most delicate part as well as the construction works themselves, because the building works in a mountainous area are a first in Romania, and we estimate that works will take 3-4 years. We’ll have the feasibility study, plus the works, plus the tender procedure for contracting the works, so, with all our strong commitment, the construction works are to take between five and seven years. This motorway section, which is crossing the mountains, is the first of its kind in Romania.”
According to a government press release, the total amount of money made available to Romania between 2014 and 2020, for all the four transport sectors, road, rail, naval and combined, stands at around 6.8 billion Euros. An additional 7 billion Euro ceiling has been approved by the government, money coming from public loans and from the fuel excise with a view to securing funding sources for implementing projects in the road sector with emphasis on motorways. So, the total funding in the 2014-2020 period of programming will amount to 13.8 billion Euros.
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