Romania develops infrastructure links to the border with Bulgaria

Florin Cîţu’s government cuts social benefits but invests in infrastructure

Vladimir Mitev

By the end of the year, a new road from the Danube Bridge border crossing to the Giurgiu-Bucharest road will be completed. This was announced by Romanian Transport Minister Catalin Drula. “One project that makes me proud is the connection with the DN5 road from the entrance from Bulgaria at the customs in Giurgiu. This will be a 6 km long expressway that will bypass Giurgiu. There will be four lanes of concrete. The previous concrete road gave defects in the 90s, but now the technology is new. There is an Austrian company that has built concrete runways in Romania. This way we will get rid of the shameful situation the moment we leave the customs. It was like Mars”, the transport minister announced on Digi FM’s “Comfortable Man” show.

This is not the only Romanian activity aimed at improving relations with Bulgaria. For a little over a week, a new truck terminal has been operating at the Giurgiu customs on the Romanian side. “So far, a total of 7 lanes have been operating, 4 of them for cars and 3 for trucks. After the launch of the new route, the inspection capacity has almost doubled. There are already 13 lanes on Romanian territory, with 7 for cars, vans and buses and six for trucks. It should be noted that not all 13 lanes work constantly, as the traffic is not always so serious “, said in a press release of the Regional Administration of Ruse.

In early December 2020, the Romanian state railways CFR and the Austrian company Porr Construct signed a contract for the “modernization of the Bucharest North-Jilava-Giurgiu North-Border” railway line, which includes the restoration of the 2005 bridge near the village of Gradiste (about 20 km from Bucharest). The contract provides for six months for design and 24 months for the activities, to be financed by grants from the financial period 2014-2020. So far, the limestone of this bridge extends the railway connection between Giurgiu and Bucharest, which has made it unattractive and only two trains a day, Hot News reports.

Cîţu’s cabinet management program also envisions “completing ongoing feasibility studies, identifying and providing sources of funding for the start of new works on the central and global TEN-T network” for the section of the railway line Craiova-Calafat.

Photo: The new custsoms terminal at Giurgiu (source: Regional Administration Rousse)

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Vladimir Mitev

Vladimir Mitev is a Bulgarian Romanian-speaking journalist. He has interacted with many Bulgarian and Romanian media outlets, including Bulgarian National Radio, Mediapool, all major Bulgarian television stations, Darik Radio, and more (Bulgaria); Radio Romania, The Liberal Community 1848, all the major Romanian television stations; DoR; Libertatea; PressHub; and others (Romania); The Analysis, Acorn Radio (USA); Open Democracy (UK); voxEurop (France); the Observatory for the Balkans and the Caucasus; The Other News (Italy); The Institute for Central Europe (Poland); Argument (Czechia); Merce (Hungary); Bilten (Croatia); and Agora (the Republic of Moldova).
He promotes the idea of non-hegemonic, mutually empowering interactions in Central and Southeastern Europe that could contribute to the formation of a dynamic regional identity and connect citizens to the global community.

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