For the next budget rectification, Romania’s rail infrastructure manager CFR SA estimates that it is necessary to increase the financing of projects. By the end of 2016, the absorption level will exceed 100%. Direct payments for works included in the projects financed with European funding exceeded (EUR 163.85 million) RON 740 million, with a level of absorption of 72% in the first 8 months of 2016.
Total investments allocated to these projects amount to around EUR 4.7 billion (RON 22 billion). Financing sources are foreign funds, the state budget and own funds.
Regarding current investments, in the first half of the year the implementation chart went up, the company’s portfolio exceeding 400 projects on infrastructure and superstructure rehabilitation, improvement of exploitation capacities and transport quality and increase of rail traffic safety.
CFR SA announced that the company’s preliminary financial exercise shows a gross result of EUR 50.2 million (RON 227 million) in the first 8 months of 2016, “a positive evolution that will be preserved by the end of this year”, the company said.
Currently, CFR SA has no debts to the state or local budget, nor debts resulted from the company’s current activity. Also, by implementing operational measures, the arrears reduced to EUR 21.5 million (RON 97.4 million, in the first 8 months of 2016), compared to the previous years when they reached EUR 221.4 million (RON 1 billion).
“Due to the economic-financial recovery programme, the company paid its short and medium term obligations and carried out repair works and infrastructure investments, works that helped reduced significantly the number of speed restrictions all over the network from 596 restrictions over the previous years to 187 speed restrictions in 2016”, announced CFR SA.
“By defining the company’s development strategy and the economic and financial measures that we have implemented, we are actually reconsolidating CFR SA’s base activity. The main factors that influence this positive trend are realigning the existing assets on the transport market, reducing debts and arrears, staff training and management optimisation. With such an approach, CFR SA can recover in a relatively short period of time the gaps created by the lack of infrastructure investments over the previous years and will take the role of rail transport activity coordinator seriously, as it happens with all similar European companies”, declared Marius Chiper, General Manager CFR SA.
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