Construction kicks off for metro line in Romania's Cluj-Napoca

The Cluj-Napoca line will be the country's first metro line outside the capital Bucharest, Boc told a press conference, as seen in a social media post.

Last year, a consortium comprising Turkish construction firm Gulermak, French rolling stock manufacturer Alstom and Romanian construction company Arcada won a 9 billion lei ($1.97 billion/1.81 billion euro) contract to design and build a metro line in the city.

In a separate social media post, transport minister Sorin Grindeanu said that the total value of the contract is 13.69 billion lei, of which 1.48 billion lei are financed through the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP), 41 million lei are covered by the municipality of Cluj-Napoca, and 10.04 billion lei come from the state budget.

"This metro line will become fully functional in 2031 when it is expected to carry 164,000 passengers a day. The people of Cluj will have at their disposal, from that moment, a light metro line over 21 km long and with 19 stations," Grindeanu added.

(1 euro=4.9758 lei)