The Ambassador of Turkey to Romania, Özgür Kıvanç Altan, strongly criticized our country for the lack of highways.
At the same time, he stated that it is unacceptable that there is no high-speed road connecting our country’s capital to Istanbul or Sofia.
"Why don't we have a highway from Bucharest to Istanbul? It's unbelievable that we don't have that. It's 600 kilometers and it takes us ten hours. It's unacceptable. Five hours! We should make it five hours.
Bucharest - Sofia. Why don't we have a highway? We should really meet and work on these projects. And once we ensure these, we should expand them to the entire Black Sea region," said Özgür Kıvanç Altan at an event organized by the Romanian Army, according to Digi24.
There has been a highway between Sofia and Istanbul since 2015, when Bulgaria opened the highway up to the Kapitan Andreevo border crossing point, connecting it to the Turkish highway to Istanbul.
On the other hand, Romania does not have any highways connecting to Bulgaria.
The Minister of Transport, Sorin Grindeanu, recently stated that by the end of the year, "around 300 to 400 kilometers" of highways and express roads will be put into operation during his mandate.
"In a cautious scenario, we should have another 1,000 kilometers of new highways and express roads in the next four years. In a more optimistic scenario, we should reach about 2,300. (...) There is every indication that we will put into operation, on average, about 250 kilometers of highways and express roads annually," stated Grindeanu, as quoted by Agerpres.