Transports minister Radu Berceanu: Bechtel will receive 440 million euro this year

Romania’s Transports minister Radu Berceanu declared on Wednesday that he has concluded talks with Bechtel and that the American company would receive 440 million euro in 2009, of which 150 million euro come as debts from 2008. He added that by November 15, another 42 km of the Romanian highway Bechtel is building in Romania will be finished.

Berceanu declared that the contract with Bechtel was more advantageous for the company than for the state. Our claim was to know what we are paying for, he said, quoted by Romanian news agency NewsIn. Berceanu said that the 150 million euro debt will be paid in installments, as work progresses.

Bechtel agreed to finish the highway from Campia Turzii, Central Romania up to the border, Berceanu said. Regarding the route from Brasov to Cluj, Berceanu said that Bechtel was proposed to give up the works so as the Transports ministry organize a public international tender for the concession of works at that section of the highway, which is due to link Central Romania with the Romanian-Hungarian border.