Romania’s CFR signs 1.069 bln lei (217.3 mln euro) railway upgrade deals

Through its CF Cluj Regional Branch, CFR signed 45 contracts totalling 699.9 million lei, excluding VAT, with Romania’s Drum Asphalt and Poland’s ZUE for Quick Wins works on a cumulative 140.1 km section of the Apahida-Baiamare, Razboieni-Episcopia Bihor and Arad-Oradea railways, the railway operator said in a press release on Thursday.

The deal follows two recent previous deals signed by CFR’s regional branches. On Wednesday, CFR announced that its CF Craiova branch signed nine contracts worth 68.4 million lei, excluding VAT, with local builder Intens Prest for Quick Wins upgrades on a 13 km section of the CF Pitesti-Slatina-Craiova line.

On Tuesday, CFR said that its regional branch CF Brasov also signed 17 contracts worth 300.2 million lei for Quick Wins works on a 66.6 km section of the CF Bucuresti-Brasov-Cluj railway sector. The works will be delivered by the same Romanian-Polish tie-up involved in the CF Cluj contracts.

The first two deals require that works be completed within 24 months, while the CF Brasov contracts have a duration of 18 months.

The Quick Wins works aim to enable traffic speeds of up to 120 km/h.

Financing is secured through non-refundable funds under Romania’s National Plan for Recovery and Resilience, PNRR.

CFR was founded in 1880 and currently manages approximately 10,628 km of railway infrastructure.

At the beginning of this month, CFR announced that it signed a 2.41 billion lei contract with an Italian-led tie-up for the modernisation of the railway infrastructure on the Ales-Frontiera section.