Horaţiu Cosma, former secretary of state: "Minister Grindeanu did not launch any tender for new highways this year"

The Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure did not launch any tender for any new highway project in 2023, stated, yesterday, in a post on the official Facebook page, Horaţiu Cosma, former secretary of state at the respective ministry at the time when it was led by the leader of USR, Cătălin Drulă.

Horaţiu Cosma stated: "Total blockage at the Ministry of Transport on new projects. Grindeanu (ed. - Sorin Grindeanu, Minister of Transport and Infrastructure) did not launch any tender for new highways in 2023. This year, highways and express roads contracted or entered the construction site will be inaugurated in 2021. However, in order for Romania to continue series of consistent project inaugurations and beyond 2026, tenders for new projects must be launched today. But Grindeanu doesn't want that. He does not want long-term development for Romania. He is content to reap the fruits sown by USR in 2021 and that's it. After him, the flood. Although he has been promising the sea with salt for 2 years, in 2023 he did not even launch a tender for a new highway or expressway. And the list of arrears is long. We are talking about more than 550 km of new roads with long-delayed design contracts during Grindeanu's mandate: - A8 Unirii mountain sector between Miercurea Nirajului and Leghin (about 150 km)

- A7 Paşcani - Suceava - Siret (100 km)

- Timişora - Moraviţa highway (70 km)

- Highway A13 Braşov - Făgăraş (40 km)

- Techirghiol Alternative Highway (30 km)

- Express road Craiova - Tg. Jiu (110 km)

- Bacău - Piatra Neamţ expressway (50 km)

- Oar - Satu Mare expressway (15 km)

A visionary statesman builds tomorrow's prosperous future for his country today. In Grindeanu's case, the only future he is building is that of the PSD-PNL specials. In 2024, the time of reckoning will come."

We mention that, apart from the above projects, A3 Ploieşti-Braşov can also be transferred to delayed contracts, a project estimated at launch to be completed in the period 2026-2027. Among the projects without any kind of horizon at the Ministry of Transport, although they are included in the 2021-2030 Investment Program are the "Siret Road", the Giurgiu - Bucharest Express Road, the "Moldova Connectivity Corridor 2", and the Danubius Express Alexandria 5 Connectivity Corridor - Craiova.

However, we remind you that this year several public procurement procedures were completed by the Ministry of Transport regarding the works to be carried out on the sections of the A7 and A8 highways, as well as for several national roads, but also for several works on the railway infrastructure on the most important transport corridors. The most recent example is the completion of the tender for several sections of the A13 Sibiu-Făgăraş, work financed from European funds under the Transport Operational Program, the other days section 2 of this work was also awarded to the same company from Turica that will also take care of sections 1, 3 and 4.