Financiarul

“The Danube-Bucharest Canal project is an investment that needs extra 350 million euros as it is a major project.

We shall talk about it at the Ministry of Transports and in the Government as a target of national importance and of finding financing sources of European funds and domestic budget resources,” said the Prime Minister.

The Head of Government voiced hope that the programme had chances of being put into practice and added that it had economic advantages and it “should not be forgotten” even if it can be traced as far back as before 1989.

In November 2008 the Danube-Bucharest Canal officially switched from the management of the Ministry of the Environment to the management of the Ministry of Transports.

The Danube-Bucharest Canal project includes two navigable lanes on the rivers of Arges and Dambovita (southern Romania) as well as three ports: 1 Decembrie on the Arges, Glina on the Dambovita and the port of Oltenita.

Work on the Danube-Bucharest Canal started in 1986 on the basis of a project made in 1982, but the idea can be traced back to 1929 when Parliament passed a bill on building a canal that should change Romania’s capital into a port on the Danube.

But the construction proper started no sooner than the communist regime, immediately after the finalization of the Danube-Black Sea Canal.

Up to 1990 more than 70 percent of the work was done but after December 1989 the project was abandoned.
In 1994 the canal started being conserved officially.