NGO proposes EUR 2.4 bln project to modernize Bucharest's main train station

A EUR 2.4 billion project could turn Bucharest's Gara de Nord train station, one of the city's bleakest areas, into an economic and social development vector for the city. The Ion Mincu Center of Excellence in Urban Planning (CEP) has presented to the local authorities a project that would turn Gara de Nord into a Euro-station. The project also targets to change the area around the train station by adding office buildings, an administrative center, a mall, two green neighborhoods, and lots of green spaces. If approved by the authorities, the project could be completed in minimum ten years and would require some EUR 2.4 billion worth of investments. According to CEP, this project should be carried out in a private-public partnership, in two stages. Some of the projects’ objectives include building a modern Euro-station that would be a multi-modal transport hub with international, national, and regional rail traffic, and a high-speed train, building an east-west crossing that would link the two areas of the city separated by the railway, ensuring connections to the city by metro, tram-train, tram, bus, trolley and taxis, and revamping Gara de Nord’s area on principles of creative, intelligent and green city, reads a statement from CEP. “In the intense global competition, Romania has the strategic advantage of being a gate between the East and the West, and can become a key node on this route, and an inter-modal transport center,” said Mircea Enache, town planner, CEP director, president of EMI Systems Inc. from Washington, and International Urban Alliance (IUA). The Ion Mincu Center of Excellence in Urban Planning (CEP) is a non-profit that collaborates with the Ion Mincu Architecture University in Bucharest. The center is financed with donations and training fees. Bucharest’s city center to undergo significant makeover Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com