Road test
Romania’s absence of motorways has been holding the country back from speeding up its progress
 |
|
Along with Poland and Bulgaria, Romania is at the bottom of the pile in the EU in terms of its number of kilometres of motorways.
While Romania has only 298 km of motorways built, Germany has almost 9,000 km, France 8,000 km, while Great Britain has around 3,000 km.
The lack of road infrastructure has bad consequences for the country’s economic development. Foreign and local companies, investors and businessmen cite the poor road infrastructure as the single biggest impediment to growth. Romania has lost countless foreign investment deals due to its bad transport system. Many other firms have set up shop in the country, building their strategy around the nation’s targets for road development.
But when these transport plans are not realised, the businesses wonder why they bothered coming.
In 45 years of ruling, the Communist regime constructed 130 km of motorways, while the remaining 170 km have been constructed after 1989.
In the 1970s the Bucuresti-Pitesti A1 motorway of 110 km was the first to open. Then, in 1987, the Ceausescu dictatorship opened 18 km of motorway between Fetesti and Cernavoda on the road to the seaside.
In the first 15 years of the post-revolutionary democracy the Government finished no new intiatives enlarging the country’s motorway network.
A portion of 100 km from the first Romanian motorway, the A2 ‘Sun’ Motorway, was opened in 2004. Since then another 50 km of this motorway were completed by 2007. The remainder will be finished by the end of 2010, authorities claim.
To continue reading this article you have to be registered
| The content that you are trying to view is available only for the registered users. If you want to read this article now, please subscribe for FREE |
| New user |
Already registered ? |
As a registered used you will have a lot of benefits.
|
|
|
