Romanian Tranp Min Wants Cluj-Bors Highway Section Complete By 2012

"We want to be sure we’ll have the highway section from Cluj (northwestern Romania -e.n.) to the border, at Bors (northwestern Romania, at the border with Hungary – e.n.) completed by 2012," Berceanu said.

The transport minister will meet with Bechtel officials Tuesday to discuss the mutual obligations of the company and the Romanian state regarding the construction of the highway. The minister will also check the stage of the construction works.

Berceanu said he wants to know how come there is no “usable product” despite the fact that Romania so far paid EUR624 million within the highway construction project. He added he also wants to know how many kilometers of the road can be used this year and how many would be ready by 2012.

The minister said Romania will register high losses because of the depreciation of the local currency against the euro, as payments to Bechtel are in euro. He added the state owes Bechtel EUR77 million for last year, when the company required EUR137 million.

Construction works on the highway, which should link the central Romanian city of Brasov to the country’s western border with Hungary, started in 2004 based on a EUR2.2 billion contract attributed to Bechtel. Works were halted early 2005, when authorities started looking into the contracts signed by the previous government and the execution deadline was postponed one year, until 2013.

By mid-August 2008, the U.S. constructor only managed to build a five-kilometer segment out of a 25-kilometer highway section.