28 MILLION EUROS PER KILOMETER OF HIGHWAY The Comarnic-Braşov highway, as expensive as the GDP of some African states

• The costs have been agreed with the international bodies, and the financing will be done through the commercial banks, so they can turn out a profit as well

Romania holds the record at building highways at a snail's pace, but when it comes to expenses, we are always in the top tier, by paying bills that would be worthy of mammoth projects.

The long awaited Comarnic-Braşov infrastructure will cost 1.8 billion Euros, an extremely high amount for just 53 km, according to some voices in the market who think that from this point of view, the project is not feasible at all. "It is unacceptable for a project that is contracted out, with a call for tenders of 1.2 billion Euros and a length of 58 kilometers of to end up costing 600 million Euros more and only be 53 km long", former minister of Transports Alexandru Nazare told us yesterday.

He said: "The negotiation of the project was done in a completely opaque manner. Not even at this stage is it known how much the Romanian state will have to pay or which banks will be the ones to finance the project. PM Ponta nonchalantly tells us that he has asked Eurostat to disregard that project when calculating the country's deficit, as if Eurostat were an institution that could be fooled by the lies of Şova and Ponta."

The costs for the construction of the Comarnic-Braşov highway have been agreed with the EIB, the EBRD and the World Bank, market sources claim.

The Government has asked the agreement of Eurostat for the project not to be considered when calculating the budget deficit, and after the agreement of the European Commission and of the international financial institutions, the EIB, the EBRD, as well as after the completion of the procedures of the financing banks, it is asking for this contract with the Vinci - Strabag - Aktor consortium to be signed by April 20th, according to statements of the prime-minister Victor Ponta.

The long awaited Comarnic-Braşov infrastructure project is beginning to take shape, with the works on the highway expected to begin in April this year, according to the statements of the prime-minister.

Financing for the Comarnic - Braşov highway will be ensured by banks, and by 2017 the state will not have to pay anything, says Dan Şova, delegate minister for Infrastructure Projects of National Interest and Foreign Investments. "This project is fully financed by banks. So any expense is checked by the lender. The 28 million Euros cost per kilometer is 7 million Euros less than had been negotiated in 2011. We have almost 1.5 billion Euros for the construction, the rest all the way to 1.8 billion Euros are design expenses, management, consulting etc. The initial project stipulated a length of 58 km of highway, and we were forced to slightly change the route of the highway to make it cost less. A few hundred meters were added to the technical solution for the joining of the highway with the Braşov ring road. The highway goes through the mountains, but the entire route is outside the city areas. We will have 19 viaducts, it is a spectacular project", Dan Coman Şova said yesterday.

The maximum ceiling set for the payment which the Romanian state is set to pay to the entrepreneur of the Comarnic-Braşov highway segment starting with 2017 is 52,000 Euros a month, for each kilometer of highway, the official says.

According to him, in the memorandum signed by the Romanian authorities with the officials of the Vistrada Nord consortium (Vinci, Strabag and Aktor), which won the call for bids for the Comarnic-Braşov highway, is stipulated that the signing of the contract will take place by Easter, specifically April 20th, and for the works to begin at the end of April. "Essentially, the procedure for the selection of the consortium is complete. The Vistrada consortium is the winner. At a moment like this negotiations are being conducted for the financing of the project with the commercial banks. Normally, by April 20th, we need to be able to sign the contract and to inaugurate the construction project starting from Comarnic as well as from the Cristian end. The highway will be 53 km long and 7 more kilometers of connecting roads, so it can get tied to the ring road of the city of Braşov", prime-minister Victor Ponta said.

The prime-minister has also mentioned that the fee for the use of the highway will be set by the Romanian state, and is estimated at 5.7 lei plus VAT for the 60 kilometers.