Romania and the Republic of Moldova will closer cooperate in the field of infrastructure as the goal in the road sector is to continue the Union Highway (A8) up to Chisinau and Ukraine’s Odessa, said the Minister of Transport and Infrastructure of Romania Sorin Grindeanu, who had a meeting with Deputy Prime Minister Andrei Spînu, Minister of Infrastructure and Regional Development, IPN reports.

Sorin Grindeanu proposed convening the joint Commission in January for coordinating all the activities that refer to the projection and budding of the Ungheni Bridge over the Prut. “We agreed on the necessity of identifying other transfrontier projects eligible through European funds. These could be submitted as part of the next call for proposals that will be launched this September,” said the Romanian minister

Three proposals have even identified by now – the budding of the Ungheni Bridge and of the infrastructure of access to the bridge, together with a border crossing point on Moldova’s territory; modernization of the DJ 249 road for ensuring connection with the existing infrastructure on Romania’s territory, and ensuring of road connection between Albița (Romania) and Leușeni (Moldova) for which an application will be submitted in September 2023 – January 2024.

“In the road sector, we would like the Union Highway (A8) to be continued up to Chisinau (Moldova) and Odessa (Ukraine). We also discussed the modernization and budding of transfrontier road bridges over the Prut: Sculeni Bridge (Sculeni); Oancea Bridge (Cahul); Albița Bridge (Leușeni) – new bridge; Răducăneni Bridge (Bărboieni) – new road; Bumbăta Bridge (Leova) – new bridge; Fălciu Bridge (Leca /Cantemir) – new bridge,” stated Sorin Grindeanu.

In railway infrastructure, the interlocutors considered the extension of the broad-gauge railway up to Nicolina Station and the rehabilitation of the railway corridor Iasi (Airport in Iasi) - Ungheni- Chisinau (Airport in Chisinau) - Odessa, with financing obtained from the World Bank.