Calafat – Vidin bridge to be inaugurated today

Newsroom 14/06/2013 | 08:14

The Calafat-Vidin bridge will be opened today in the presence of the Romanian Prime Minister Victor Ponta, Bulgarian counterpart Plamen Oresharski and European Commissioner for Regional Policy, Johannes Hahn.

The Romanian-Bulgarian agreement for building this bridge was signed in March 2000, by the National Bank governor Mugur Isarescu, when he was heading the government. The bridge between Vidin and Calafat is built with co-financing from the EU Cohesion Fund, is part of the Pan-European transport corridor linking the German city of Dresden with Turkey’s metropolis of Istanbul.

The bridge has almost two kilometers, two-lanes each way, a railway track, two sidewalks and a cycling track. Pedestrians and cyclists as well as ambulances, police and fire rescue vehicles will not pay any fee. The governments of Bulgaria and Romania approved on Wednesday the fees for crossing the bridge, which will vary between EUR 6 and 37, depending on the vehicle type.

The parties also agreed to open a new border checkpoint between Bulgaria and Romania along the Vidin-Calafat connection, which will handle road, rail and river freight, as well as passenger traffic.

Oana Vasiliu