The Romanian Government will pay between EUR 30 million and EUR 32 million to build underground passes for bears on the Lugoj-Deva highway segment in Romania, according to the Romanian prime-minister Victor Ponta.

“The environmental approval was obtained. For your knowledge, the underpasses for bears will cost us around EUR 30 million. You can smile, I can’t smile, but this is the reality. Yes, we must do some underpasses and all the works will cost EUR 30-32 million,” Ponta told local journalists.

In September this year, the Romanian prime-minister said that the EU-funded highway segment near the city of Deva can’t be done because authorities didn’t build underground passes for bears.

Romania has over 6,000 brown bears, which is almost half the population of brown bears in the European Union.

Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com

(photo source: sxc.hu)