Romania’s Transport Ministry has allocated some RON 1.53 billion (EUR 340 million) this year for the Bucharest underground, compared to RON 1.06 billion (EUR 236 million) spent last year.

The largest chunk goes for the metro line 5 connecting Drumul Taberei to Pantelimon, namely some RON 788 million (EUR 175.5 million), reports local Economica.net. The budget is lower compared to last year, when this metro line received RON 846 million (EUR 188.4 million).

The segment between Drumul Taberei and Universitate Square gets RON 650 million (EUR 145 million) whereas the segment between Universitate Square and Pantelimon gets EUR 138 million (EUR 30.7 million), according to the annex of the Transport Ministry to the 2017 draft project.

After several delays, the work on the line connecting Drumul Taberei to Eroilor could be completed in the first part of next year.

The Transport Ministry also allocated some EUR 41.6 million to modernize most of the existing underground system. The Government allocated RON 2 million (EUR 445 million) to ease the access of people with disabilities to the metro network.

The Transport Ministry has a budget of RON 13.76 billion (EUR 3 billion) this year, namely 1.69% of the GDP. In addition to that, the ministry can take loans for investments worth RON 4.9 billion (EUR 1.1 billion), so that the total amount allocated to the Transport Ministry amounts to 2.3% of the GDP.

editor@romania-insider.com