Road infrastructure projects
Gov't plans to sign construction deal for Ploiesti-Brasov Motorway this year
Ştefan Stoica, 12.10.2018, 12:43
The contract for building the Ploiesti-Brasov motorway, crossing the Southern Carpathians from south to north, will be put out to tender on Monday. The announcement was made by PM Viorica Dancila, who said that an accord for a private-public partnership for the construction of the motorway will be signed by the end of the year.
Viorica Dancila: “This is a long-awaited project, for which the Government has been making efforts in the past few months. Romanian and foreign investors are invited to submit tenders in the next 30 days. The contract will be awarded through a competitive selection process. Negotiations with the selected investors will follow, so that in December we could sign a public-private partnership deal for the construction of this motorway.
No cost estimates have been made public yet. The Ploiesti and Brasov county capitals are currently connected by a European road crossing the countrys most popular mountain resorts. However, the heavy traffic here, especially on weekends and during holidays, has placed this road among the busiest in south-east Europe.
The Opposition criticises the solution chosen for the financing of the Ploiesti-Brasov motorway, namely a public-private partnership, the same option as in the case of Moldavia motorway linking central and north-eastern Romania. The leader of the National Liberal Party, Ludovic Orban, has called on the Romanian Government to apply for non-reimbursable EU funds for Moldavia motorway.
Ludovic Orban: “In fact, by taking the decision to finance Moldavia motorway though a public-private partnership, the Social Democratic Government has conveyed the message that building this motorway segment is not a priority and that in fact it does not plan to build this vital motorway at all. It is clear, as confirmed by European Commissioner Corina Cretu, that this motorway segment can be financed from non-reimbursable European funds, under the Infrastructure and Environment Operational Programme.
In turn, the European Commissioner for Regional Development, Corina Cretu, has harshly criticised Bucharest for the lack of infrastructure projects that could run on European funds. She has also said that 2 billion euros allotted for transport have already been lost, and that efforts are being made to avoid losing some of the funds earmarked for the 2014-2020 period. Romanian authorities have announced that around 100 km of motorway will be operational as of this year in the north-west and west of the country.
Romania has less than 750 kms of motorway, of which around 100 were built during the communist period. According to the media, if the promises made by the countrys transport ministers in the past five years alone had been kept, Romania would now have 8,000 km of motorway.
(translated by: Elena Enache)
