Outgoing government announces major contract with Turkish-Chinese group for highway linking south to Transylvania

It’s one of the busiest _ and most frustrating_ routes in Romania linking the south to Transylvania.

The outgoing government says it’s poised to sign a major contract for a long-awaited highway linking Ploiesti to Brasov with a Turkish-Chinese consortium which was one of five bidders for the project.

Transport Minister Razvan Cuc says the consortium and the Romanian authorities have reached agreement for the public-private partnership which still needs to be approved by the government.

It’s unclear whether the government of Viorica Dancila which was overthrown in a no-confidence vote on Oct. 10 will have the time to sign off on the deal.

“If we can do it, we’ll do it, if not we’ll leave it on a silver platter for the next government,” Cuc said on Sunday.

If concluded, the motorway would be the first high-speed road built by a public-private partnership for which drivers will have to pay a toll. The private group will finance 75 percent of the road and the state the rest.

Reports say the 100-kilometre highway, which passes through the mountains, will cost about 1.36 billion euros. It can take motorists as long as five or six hours on the current road at peak hours during the weekend or holiday season.

Traffic has gotten much worse on the road as Romania’s economy has grown particularly since joining the European Union in 2007, but its infrastructure has not kept pace.

Ousted Prime Minister Viorica Dancila said last year that the Comarnic-Brasov section of the highway should be finished by 2024, although some say that may be an optimistic guesstimate.

Although there were questions about the timing of the announcement, most Romanians will welcome the new highway with the road through the Prahova Valley counted as one of motorists’ biggest headaches.

Cuc denied the contract was a trap for the next government, insisting the agreement was transparent.

“We are not in a hurry. It is the work of the past six months. It’s not a trap. Things are simple, transparent. The contract will be public, to be approved by government resolution,” he said.

President Klaus Iohannis said officials declared the highway to be a strategic goal of national interest at a July meeting of the Supreme Defense Council.

After the collapse of communism, a motorist drive from Bucharest to Brasov in about two hours; far less time than it takes now.

LĂSAȚI UN MESAJ

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