The Union Highway, from Ungheni to Chisinau and to Odessa, is to be cxompleted by 2035, Nicolai Mîndra, secretary of state of the Ministry of Infrastructure and Regional Development of the Republic of Moldova, stated in a public debate hosted by IPN News Agency.
According to him, the exact period of building works is not known. What is certain is that the project is to be approved by the Interministerial Committee for Strategic Planning, after which the importance of the object, the necessary financial resources and their origin will be agreed. What is certain is that the whole highway is to be constructed by 2035.
The secretary of state noted that the difference between the development of projects in Romania and Moldova resides in the financing procedure. Moldova, apart from loans, grants for interconnection and other forms and funds of financing major projects, does not have access to other sources. A lot depends on the EU pre-accession funds. Moldova is now in the right place to develop feasibility studies because, when the pre-accession funds will become available, the construction works will begin on several sectors along the entire highway.
He added that the Interministerial Committee for Strategic Planning, when the feasibility study is ready, will approve the macroeconomic criteria of this object of strategic importance. The procedure to transfer land, in the case of public land the expropriation procedure as well, will follow and, as in Romania, the design and construction works will be put out for bidding in the end.
The official noted that any feasibility study and any technical project for the construction or extension of roads are based on traffic. If the focus is on the development of the highway only for traffic, it will probably not be a highway, but an expressway. But as long as this highway was included in the master plan for road development, including in the Republic of Moldova, this project becomes a priority for the EU and is outlined from the beginning as a highway.
The public debate entitled “Union Highway, interconnection of road infrastructure in Romania and the Republic of Moldova” was the 18th installment of the project “Double integration through cooperation and information. Continuity”, which is funded by the Department for Relations with the Republic of Moldova of the Government of Romania. The content of this debate does not represent the official position of the Department for Relations with the Republic of Moldova.
