
Romania is planning to extend the Unity Highway (Unirii/A8) to Chisinau and Odessa, and restore the Iasi-Ungheni-Chisinau-Odessa railway corridor.
This was stated by the Minister of Transport and Infrastructure of Romania Sorin Grindeanu after a meeting with Moldovan Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Infrastructure and Regional Development Andrei Spinu. He noted that Moldova and Romania will cooperate more closely in the infrastructure sector and proposed that a bilateral joint commission be set up in February to coordinate all activities related to the design and construction of the bridge across the Prut River in Ungheni. The parties agreed on the need to identify other cross-border projects eligible for European funding (CEF). They can be submitted within the next call for proposals, which will start in September this year. Presently, three proposals have been already identified: construction of a bridge in Ungheni (project approved in December 2022); construction of an access infrastructure to this bridge, including a border crossing (on the territory of Moldova) and modernization of the DJ 249 road to provide unloading and connection with the existing infrastructure (in Romania); ensuring a road link Albita (Romania) - Leuseni (Moldova), for which the application will be submitted within September 2023 - January 2024. The parties also touched upon the modernization and construction of many cross-border road bridges across the Prut: Sculeni-Sculeni; Oancea-Cahul; Albita-Leuseni (new bridge); Raducaieni-Barboieni (new bridge); Bumbata-Leova (new bridge); Falciu-Cantemir (new bridge). In the field of railway infrastructure, the parties discussed the extension of the broad-gauge line to Nicolina station (Iasi). Thus, trains could run on the broad-gauge railroad on the Ungheni - Cristesti Jijia - Socola - Nicolina section. Sorin Grindeanu also added that the common interest is to restore the railway corridor Iasi (Iasi Airport)-Ungheni-Chisinau (Chisinau Airport)-Odessa with World Bank financing. The Romanian minister said that in the field of aviation, the possibility of increasing the frequency of flights by Romanian carriers on the Bucharest-Chisinau route is being analyzed, as well as the diversification of destinations by performing new flights from many international airports of Romania. //27.01.2023 - InfoMarket.