Transport Minister Alexandru Nazare is in the UK, where he attended an event on public-private partnership (PPP) hosted by the British Treasury.
Nazare has decided to create a PPP committee in the ministry, to improve the management capacity for such projects. “The United Kingdom is a leader in PPP projects and provides assistance for such projects in more than 40 countries,” said the minister. Romania may also receive support from the European Investment Bank, which has a subsidiary specialized on PPP projects.
The government has tried twice before to build the Comarnic-Brasov highway, most recently in 2010, when the auction winner, a consortium of Vinci (France) and Aktor (Greece), dropped the contract. Greek group Ellaktor, which includes Aktor, announced that the Romanian government refused to accept certain clauses, which made financing the project impossible.
This 55 km-long section was to be completed by 2014. Afterwards, Romania would have paid EUR4.8 billion over 26 years.
Another Transport Ministry project is building a beltway around Bucharest, at highway standards, estimated to cost around EUR900 million.
Romania currently has 370 km of highway, on the sections Bucharest-Cernavoda, Bucharest-Pitesti and Campia Turzii-Gilau. The sections Timisoara-Arad (32 km), Medgidia-Constanta (25 km) and Constanta beltway (8 km) were opened for traffic last year, but have not been completed.
Work is in progress on 434 km (costing EUR4.09 billion), contracts are being signed for another 25.6 km (EUR134 million) and auctions for 111 km (EUR1.1 billion) are ongoing.