Premier Ponta no longer nagged the Transport Minister with Parliament debates on this issue. Consequently, Victor Ponta has accepted Transport Minister Ioan Rus’s “variant.”
The problem is that the variant that resulted from the debates that took place at the Transport Ministry or within Parliament’s special commissions is not public.
In these conditions, we are informed that Premier Victor Ponta has asked Transport Minister Ioan Rus to start negotiations with the European Commission on the Transport Master Plan.
In his turn, Minister Rus pointed out that according to the things discussed at the European Commission, the Romanian delegation will be in Brussels on March 9-13.
In brief, the Master Plan’s main indicators by 2030 are:
- For road transport: highways – 1,300 kilometres, EUR 13.7 bln; express ways – 1825,9 km, EUR 9.9 bln; transregio – 2,870 km, EUR 1.6 bln; transeuro – 343 km, EUR 190 mln
- For railway transport: railway lines to be rehabilitated – 2,883 km, EUR 10.7 bln ; railway lines to be electrified – 489 km, EUR 1.1 bln
- For the naval sector, investments of EUR 3.395 bln, particularly in the Constanta, Galati, Drobeta Turnu Severin harbours, other harbours, navigable canal;
- For the air transport sector, 15 airports, of which seven international airports and the other open to international traffic or regional airports
The sum needed to finance the projects included in the Transport Master Plan totals EUR 45.45 bln.
Minister of Transport, Ioan Rus, has announced on Wednesday that he presented the Transport Master Plan to President Klaus Iohannis before the document is approved by Government.
‘Before this document is adopted by the Government, I, personally, upon the orders of the Prime Minister, who spoke with Mr. President , had a discussion and presented to him the Transport General Master Plan without these details, meaning without the approval of additional sums. I spoke with Mr. President (…) and if his program allows him, I will go there and explain exactly what we did. The President is also in the know, as is normal’, said Minister Rus during a press briefing at the Victoria Palace. (source: nineoclock.ro)
