USA GOVERNMENT TO HELP WITH REHABILITATION OF SARATENII VECHI-SOROCA HIGHWAY
09.03.2010
The USA Government will allocate $130 million within four years for the rehabilitation of Saratenii Vechi-Soroca highway. Minister of Transport and Roads Anatol Salaru said this in the TV program “The Open Studio”.
He said that the financial resources will begin to be transferred from 2011 gradually, as the designing works will begin in 2011”.
“At first we planned to allocate more money, but the grant was reduced due to the global financial and economic crisis. This will not be the construction of a new road, but the rehabilitation of the old road”, Salary remarked.
Deputy Minister Boris Gherasim communicated that at first several highways were selected: Balti-Criva, Leuseni-Poltava and Sarateni-Soroca.
“The latter one is damaged most of all and is in need of rehabilitation, the traffic intensity is very high and reaches 3-4 thousand vehicles during 24 hours”, he said.
Gherasim also remarked that Moldova does not plan the construction of new roads within the nearest ten years, as “it is very expensive” and the main stress will be on the rehabilitation of the already existing roads.
“In the best case we shall succeed in collecting 1 billion lei yearly, whereas we need 4 million lei yearly during 10 years in order to bring the roads in a good state” the Deputy Minister said.
In TV program it was remarked that in 2010 foreign banks plan to allocate about 294 million lei for the road rehabilitation.
“But it will suffice only to rehabilitate 25-30 km out of 10 thousand km, which call for renovating”, Salaru considers.
The Moldovan Government and the Millennium Challenge Corporation have signed an agreement on rendering financial assistance in the amount of $262 million for the implementation of the Compact program. It is planned to use a half of this sum for the rehabilitation of roads.
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