Official sources with the largest Romanian exporter, Renault-owned carmaker Automobile Dacia, say that starting work on the Comarnic-Brasov highway and postponing the Pitesti-Sibiu highway by almost ten years affects Romania’s’ economic competitiveness and sends a negative signal to investors.
“It’s crazy to discuss competition of the two. The government ignores the fact that the route via Brasov is not a route validated by the EU and the fact that the Pitesti-Sibiu route is part of an international corridor,” Dacia sources said.
The lack of a highway connecting Pitesti and Sibiu (southern to central Romania) via Olt River Valley costs Dacia more than EUR10 million a year, driving cost per car exported up EUR60.
The average speed on Olt Valley is 37 km/h and if the road were a highway, trucks would be able to travel at 60 to 80 km/h, saving both time and money.
“When we’re talking Sibiu-Pitesti, we’re talking a master plan validated by the European Union. We are talking a solution 85% funded. Studies have been conducted about the traffic flow on the two routes. 50,000 vehicles pass through the Olt Valley every day and 22,000 pass through Prahova Valley. Can the two figures compare? Moreover, the shipments that drive Romania’s economy and exports go through Olt Valley, while the other route is for cars on holiday trips,” the quoted sources said.
After a number of politicians including the major infrastructure projects minister Dan Sova and regional development minister Liviu Dragnea have said on different occasions in the last few months that they prefer the Sibiu-Brasov-Ploiesti highway built over Sibiu-Pitesti, the government on Tuesday said officially it saw the latter as a project to be built until 2022.
On the other hand, the government plans to complete a Sibiu-Brasov-Ploiesti highway until 2018, according to a published document titled “Romania 100”, as a suggestion of the 100th anniversary of the country’s unification of 1918.
Moreover, the government is now talking about a Pitesti-Ramnicu Valcea highway, to be completed by 2018 and paid for with cohesion funds and using the Connecting Europe Facility made available by the European Union.
The authorities put the Sibiu-Ramnicu Valcea section in the “priorities until 2022” chapter, which means the highway crossing the mountains and providing an alternative to the Olt Valley, regarded as one of the busiest and most dangerous of the country will only be completed in about a decade from now.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)