Romania, Bulgaria Commit To Jointly Build New Bridges Over Danube River

Boagiu and Tsvetkov met Thursday for talks on the construction of new bridges over the Danube, the finalization of the bridge linking Calafat in Romania to Vidin in Bulgaria and about crossing the Danube by ferryboat from Calarasi in Romania to Silistra in Bulgaria, Romania's Transport Ministry said in a press release.

Boagiu said they signed a declaration on the construction of new bridges over the Danube, given the importance of making river transport a priority at European level, and discussed the possibility of building new hydropower plants. She added Romania and Bulgaria will jointly act for the revision of the TEN-T (Trans-European Transport Network) policy, for the Via Carpatia project and the project of the Black Sea Highway, in order to maximize their competitive advantages due to their access to the Danube River and the Black Sea, the press release also reads.

Boagiu stressed Romania obtained constructors' firm commitment to finish works on the Calafat-Vidin Bridge in June 2011, adding Romania will also uphold the Bulgarian party to speed up construction works. The Calafat-Vidin bridge, which will stretch on two kilometers, is highly important for the European transport corridor that will link German city of Dresda to Istanbul, Turkey. Total costs with the project rise to EUR226 million.

Experts with the Romanian and Bulgarian Transport Ministries will meet with local authorities in Silistra and Calarasi, as well as with the ferry line operators, in order to tackle all problems.

In March this year, Romanian Prime Minister Emil Boc and his Bulgarian counterpart Boiko Borisov discussed the possibility of building two new bridges over the Danube, to link Calarasi and Bechet in Romania to Silistra and Oreahovo in Bulgaria, respectively.

The Giurgiu-Ruse Bridge has been operational since 1954 and is the only bridge over the Danube River linking Romania to Bulgaria.

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