Contract with Bechtel "has been canceled"

The contract for the construction of Transylvania Highway between the National Company of Highway and the National Roads in Romania and the American company Bechtel International was conducted on Wednesday, it is said in a statement of the Department for infrastructure projects and government investment (DPIIS), published on the Department website.

According to the cited source, Bechtel International Inc. claims were completely extinguished for the amount of 37.2 million euro, VAT included.

Bechtel has not commented Romanian government's announcement.

Once the termination was signed, Transylvania Highway site "will be taken over by the National Company of Highways and the National Roads in Romania", followed by the start of concession procedure for the construction of the remaining sections, it is also present the authorities in Bucharest.

According to Agerpres, the responsible with affaires of the U.S. Embassy in Bucharest, Duane Butcher, was Thursday at Victoria Palace, where he had a conversation for about an hour with Prime Minister Victor Ponta.

The minister for infrastructure projects, Dan Sova, said Wednesday evening at Reality TV that the agreement with Bechtel to build Transylvania highway was terminated, following that the Romanian state to pay 37.2 million euros and 50 million debts to the U.S. Company.

Dan Sova said that the amount will be provided within the budget "after the rectification in July".

"Bechtel negotiations were concluded, the amount we owe, according to the contract for termination, is 37.2 million euros.”

"This is a way that I discussed with Prime Minister Ponta in three steps. The first step was to seek termination.”

"The second step is to start the concession of the highway. And the third step is to finally realize the highway.”

"I do not give you deadline, I only say that everything we do will be transparent. It would be ideal to go from Bors to Constanta", said Dan Sova.

The construction of Brasov-Bors section of Transylvania Highway, started under a contract worthing 2.2 billion euros, was signed with Bechtel.

After 11 years of signing the contract, the Romanian state has 52 functional kilometers of highway and paid to Bechtel 1.4 billion euro.

Tags: highway, Dan Sova, government, Transylvania, euro, contract termination

Translated by Alexandra Diana Mircea

MTTLC, Bucharest University