The Minister of Transport and Infrastructure, Deputy Prime Minister Sorin Grindeanu, said that the first 19 railway lines in the Port of Constanta, out of a total of 35, which were assigned in emergency procedure for upgrading railway infrastructure, are being received on Thursday.
He stated that, currently, the port is operating at under 50% of its capacity due to the lack of modernization of the railway infrastructure. In this sense, the Government will allocate one billion euros to increase the transport capacity of the port.
"The port operates at under 50% of its capacity and this under-capacity operation is primarily due to the lack of modernization of the railway infrastructure. The Port of Constanta was thought, first of all, to develop through the railway side. At this moment we have reached almost 100% on the road capacity in the Port of Constanta. I am not saying that development projects are not necessary in that area as well, but what exists now, the road capacity is 100% used. Today there is reception on the first 19 lines rehabilitated in the port, 18 out of 35. In the first half of November, reception will be done for the other 16, but it is not enough. We found 98 unused lines in the port", the transport minister said during a visit to the construction site of the Targu Jiu municipality belt.
He added that, in the upcoming budget exercise, he will no longer accept that the representatives of the Port of Constanta do not access European funds for modernization as until now only the port's own revenues have been used for this purpose.
In this context, he showed that, this year, the budget for investments in the road area has doubled and he wants the same for the railway area. AGERPRES