Bucharest mayor Sorin Oprescu on Thursday, May 8, signed the contract for the construction of the Piata Sudului underground pass with two contractors, Italian group Astaldi and Romanian company Euroconstruct. The work for this project will take 18 months, but once the passage will be finished the time required for drivers to transit the area will be reduced with up to 74 percent, Oprescu said.

“This is the largest infrastructure project financed with European funds, through the Regional Operating Program REGIO”, Oprescu said (in picture, left). In October 2013, the Bucharest city hall secured a EUR 21.7 million nonrefundable funding from the EU for this project which will have a total value of EUR 28.6 million.

Romania is still last in the EU when it comes to the absorption rate of EU funds, but the European Funds Ministry representatives hopes that such large projects will help raise this rate. “Between May, 2012 and May 5, 2014, our country requested the reimbursement of EUR 5.07 billion in structural and cohesion funds. The current level of absorption, of almost 35 percent, is still far from what I want, but by the end of 2015 we can touch an 80 percent rate”, European funds minister Eugen Todorovici said (in picture, right).

The underground pass is situated in the Southern part of Bucharest, in Piata Sudului, close to Sun Plaza mall. It will be 356 meters long and will connect Calea Vacaresti with Vasile Nitu Street.

Andrei Chirileasa, andrei@romania-insider.com