3 June 2013
Romania has agreed to pay US giant Bechtel $48.5 million compensation as part of a deal to cancel a disastrous motorway contract first signed in 2003, the government said Thursday.
Added to the compensation is another $65.2 million in debts owed to Bechtel, Romania’s infrastructure minister Dan Sova said, according to news agency AFP, via GlobalPost.com.
Romania had granted the $2.8-billion contract to the Bechtel and Turkey’s Enka in 2003. The JV was to build a 415-kilometre motorway between Brasov and Bors, near the Hungarian border.
But 10 years on, only 52 kilometres have been completed.
Romanian authorities had already cancelled part of the deal in 2011, when Bechtel was left with only two out of eight segments to complete.
But Bechtel had several times halted work, accusing the government of failing to pay its debts.
