Romanian Transports Ministry Takes Over Agriculture Academy Land For Bucharest Beltway

The land will be transferred from the Balotesti Institute for Animal Husbandry Research & Development under the “Gheorghe Ionescu-Sinesti” Academy for Agricultural and Silvic Sciences, in order to expand the northern part of Bucharest’s beltway, between km 2 and the intersection with national road DN2, to four lanes.

The procedure will be an exception from the legal provision whereby land under the administration of public research and development institutions may not be removed from under their administration. The Government said the decision was taken on the grounds that failing to adopt the measure as an emergency will make it impossible to respect obligations taken up through the work contract, which can lead to additional budget expenses of up to 30% the cost of the project.

Romania’s Road Company officials said a week ago that 26 km of Bucharest’s northern beltway would be completed by November 2009 and the entire road would be done by 2011. Expanding the beltway to four lanes will cost around 253 million lei (EUR1=RON4.1977) and will be carried out on three segments.

The beltway will connect national road DN1 Bucharest-Ploiesti, the Bucharest-Pitesti highway and the Sun Highway.