EDITORIAL - Troubled projects

The idea of shifting low-cost flights from Baneasa to Alexeni, nearly 60 km away from Bucharest, caused many negative reactions last month, both from airlines and tour operators. Baneasa airport authorities didn’t make much noise about the plan, knowing that their runway will swallow 18 million Euros this year for renovation projects, and the money might be better spent elsewhere if most of the current flights will be moved.

Examples of odd practice in infrastructure project management are not only in air transport business, but also in the field of road transport. It is the case of Bucharest-Brasov highway: right after constructors started to work in the first section linking Moara Vlasiei to Ploiesti, a Government agency announced there are some irregularities regarding the way a developer was chosen. on top of that, some landowners complained that they will get too little compensation for expropriated land, namely a price 4 times lower than market value for specific lots. Since the price difference is huge, it seems authorities will badly hurt landowners’ interests. A situation worsened by that fact that some of these owners are foreign investors who bought the land for real estate projects and don’t expect to be deposed of their properties.

All in all, the problems that emerged last month showed that the current infrastructure development strategy is flawed, consisting of a series of troubled projects.