July 30 (SeeNews) - The European Commission (EC) has approved Romania's plans to grant 27.4 million euro ($30.5 million) investment aid to Galati port to fund the construction of a multimodal platform, it said on Tuesday.
The Commission found that the aid was necessary, proportionate and that the distortion of competition will be limited given the relatively small-to-medium size of the Port of Galati, with limited transport volumes at EU level, the EU Commission said in a statement.
Furthermore, according to traffic growth forecasts, the slight capacity increase created by the project would be offset by the increase in demand, mainly stemming from other road-based flows transport routes on the Rhine-Danube territory, the EC said.
The project includes the upgrading of the quay and the building of the required infrastructure for a modern intermodal terminal with a capacity of 150,000 TEUs annually in the area called Port Bazinul Nou. The newly created logistic node will promote the shift from road transport to railway and inland waterways/maritime transport on the Rhine-Danube Trans-European Transport corridor, fulfilling an objective of EU common interest.
The total investment cost amounts to 89.9 million euro and the project will be co-financed by the Romanian state, regional funds allocated via the Large Infrastructure Operational Programme (LIOP) and private money coming from concessionaires of the platform, as well as directly by the Connecting Europe Facility.
($ = 0.8969 euro)