The PNL candidate for the Capital City Hall, Sebastian Burduja, criticized, on Saturday, the general mayor, Nicuşor Dan, and the PSD senator, Gabriela Firea, for the delays in the rehabilitation projects of the district heating network. “A shard laughs at a broken pot or a broken pipe,” Burduja said to his opponents.
Sebastian Burduja pleaded for the merger of Elcen and Termoenerge Photo: Inquam Photos Octav Ganea
Sebastian Burduja declared, on Saturday, during a press conference, that there was money for these investments, but that “there was no competence“, which is why hundreds of thousands of Bucharest people, “constantly“, they don't have heat and hot water.
“On the subject of heating, I saw that there is a debate between Ms. Firea and Mr. Nicusor Dan. Honestly, he laughs like a broken pot, or a broken pipe. Because neither one nor the other managed to solve this problem of heat and hot water in Bucharest. The pace at which we worked means that we will end this problem in many years”said Burduja.
Regarding the rehabilitation of 210 km of heating network, with European financing (investment in the total amount of 260 million euros), Burduja specified that, although the guide was published in 2015, the project was submitted only in 2019.
“The documentation was worked on between 2016 – 2019. A documentation that for other cities took a year, in Mrs. Firea's Bucharest it took three years. Here we note a delay of two years. The project was submitted, it was approved. In 2020, in October, Mr. Nicusor Dan came and from October 2020, when the specifications were ready, he launched the tender in January 2022. This period of 15 months was never explained by Mr. Nicusor Dan. He did not change a comma in this award documentation, in the context in which hundreds of thousands of Bucharest residents were without hot water. (…) Sign the contracts only in November 2022 and start work last year, after doing a detailed design“, said the PNL representative, according to Agerpres.
Burduja also stated that because of these delays, “lost“almost 200 million euros from European funds, even if the mayor Nicusor Dan managed to phase the project.”The phasing of the project does not mean that it did not lose money, but it consumes the money from the next financial year, the one we are in now“, he added.
The PNL leader also specified that, according to the schedule of works, at this moment 25% of the investment should have been completed, but that the current stage of the works is approximately 10%.
According to him, out of the 25 lots of the project, 16 do not have approvals, although many of them are under the competence of the General City Hall.
Burduja also invoked the opinion of some specialists according to which construction sites were opened “throughout the city, electorally“, but that this is not the right way to rehabilitate the network.
“Every major project must start from a CHP, where the heating agent is produced, and continue to a node in the network. The network being like a ring, because that's how you manage to maintain the same pressure and solve the problem. They worked punctually, they did not work a continuous segment, which means that from a pressure of 8-9 bars, which is normal, now in the heating system we have 1-2 bars“, explained the liberal candidate.
Regarding the rehabilitation of the Colentina section, Burduja specified that, although the project was approved in 2018 by the General Council, the order to start the works has not been given even now.
Sebastian Burduja also pleaded for a merger between Elcen and Termoenergetica, the modernization of the district heating network, in the context where “more than 2,000 tons of hot water flow out, like through a sieve” every hour in the network, the modernization of the three CETs, the connection of the CETs directly to the Transgaz network, as well as for the exploitation of geothermal energy from the north of the Capital.
