Italian contractor resumes work on Romanian capital’s new subway line

Work on Bucharest’s subway line connecting downtown to Drumul Taberei neighborhood was resumed after a more than 45-day hiatus. Italian general contractor Astaldi accepted to resume work at full capacity and to finalize it by September 2015, but it will file a case against Metrorex, the state-owned company that operates the Bucharest subway, to recover EUR 10 million in unpaid bills, according to Economica.net. Had the blockage continued, Metrorex would have been forced to cancel the contract and auction off work again. This would have meant losing financing from the European Union for the subway line. The project is estimated to cost EUR 400 million, of which 85% covered by EU funds. Construction work on the Drumul Taberei subway line is 52% completed. editor@romania-insider.com