The General Mayor of the Capital, Nicuşor Dan, spoke, on Sunday, in an interview, about the achievements and arrears of the three and a half years of his mandate, stating that he chose between the functional and aesthetic aspects of the city, exiting bankruptcy and staggering everything debts.
Dan: Pollution comes from traffic and heating with own means PHOTO Inquam Photos / George Călin
“I was thinking about this amount of 20 billion. In fact, a large part of this amount has a fixed destination: salaries, subsidies, operation of public lighting, traffic lights, all these things related to operation. Between function and aesthetics, we went for function. I remember, the first question was, when I took office, whether or not we can get out of bankruptcy. That is, if we have money next month to pay for public transport. It was a question of whether or not the heating system was going to collapse. And I remind you that in November-December 2020 we had a big breakdown that kept Sectors 2 and 3 without heat for two months. So the efforts and the money we had I took to the operation”, said Nicușor Dan, in an interview for Hotnews.ro, after he was asked what his achievements are in this term, having about 20 billion lei on hand, and why things are moving so hard.
The general mayor of the Capital claimed that among the successes of his mandate are the staggering of all debts, regaining the trust of financial and commercial partners, as well as heating, which according to him “now it is much more stable and this winter it worked”. “And now if you want to take stock of these 3 years, it would be the exit from bankruptcy and the phasing of all debts and regaining the trust of financial and commercial partners. The heating system, which is now much more stable, also worked this winter. Of course we averaged about 1% breakdowns and subpar performance, but much better than past winters. I finally did 50 km of heating pipe in one year, 110 in the 3 years. We managed to optimize the European money that was available to us. We finished the work at Glina, for which if we didn't finish it, we had to give 100 million euros back. We brought 100 trams under the conditions that since 1989, Bucharest has not bought any more trams, 100 electric buses have already been brought, 100 trams, we are at 30 now. We unlocked the big issue of the general urban plan, which was blocked since 2014, and now we are close to actually starting the design. Those are the things that are kind of tangible,” Dan said.
Nicușor Dan stated that in the current mandate “it stabilized and gave those great directions of development” of the Capital.
“On the other hand, I opened a direction, even if these things are not visible. I mean, we gave a direction to the city, we have those contracts for the rehabilitation of the 50 km of tram. For the moment we started with Line 5. We have the feasibility study in the works for the extension from Unirii Square for the tram line, the intelligent traffic lights, now after we vote the budget we will finally sign the contract for the feasibility study, so those radials that we are working together with the Ilfov County Council and the Ministry to use the ring highway in the interest of the city. So, in short, we stabilized and gave those big development directionssaid the general mayor of the Capital.
Hot water problem and infrastructure deficiencies
Nicușor Dan claimed that in certain areas of sector 5 and 6 people finally have hot water, for which he is stopped on the street to thank him.
“Syou know that I still walk down the street and people still stop me and say…, a citizen from sector 6, Moinești street, stopped me recently and told me that he never had hot water and now he has thanks, same if we go to Rahova area, same thing. Indeed, you remembered very well where we took over the city, that is, we didn't have a stripe drawn on the asphalt because no more money had been given for …, and that's what we started doing from the first year of the mandate”, said Dan, when asked why he didn't also take care of the aesthetic side of Bucharest, which would be more visible to the electorate.
The general mayor of the Capital also said that in order to exit bankruptcy in 2021, the repair of streets and sidewalks had to be crossed off the list. “In 2021, we did what we did precisely to get out of bankruptcy. At Mrs. Ghica's bridge, we had three unsuccessful tenders for the metal decking. Why? Because no one trusted that we would ever pay them. We bought 400 buses from Otokar and didn't pay them, that's the situation we got. At the parking lot in Pantelimon there were 50 million unpaid for a year and a half. So, no one really wanted to come and work with the City Hall. And then, in 2021, we made some massive cuts and from where we didn't want to cut, for example – from street and sidewalk repairs – only in 2022 did we start making the repairs. Finally, there were also delays with the public procurement. I mean, last year, 2023, we invested tens of millions and the works at Unirii, the works in Floreasca, that is, there were many sidewalk works, were seen. I'll give you an example, 2024, just out of shame the Streets Administration only asked me for 200 million and we gave, the budget we proposed was 100 million, but they could have proposed 500 million if we had have had This is the situation, the financial constraint”Dan also specified.
Pollution and traffic in the Capital
Asked if he did everything he could do in this mandate so that the people of Bucharest have hot water, Nicușor Dan claimed that now when he looks back he sees that he could have done some things in a different order and gained time: “for example, on the 20 neighborhood power stations, at the head of the line, we wasted some time trying to rent them, if we had started from then on the purchase purchase, we probably would have already had them“. “Overall, we have done in 3 years what was not done in 12“, added the mayor of the Capital.
Regarding the pollution in the Capital Nicușor Dan stated that this “it comes from traffic and heating with own means“.
And regarding the congested traffic, the mayor of the Capital claimed that it is due to an urban development “unsustainable and harmful“, where “tried to stabilize things” through legal actions against sector PUZs and public transport purchases: “we have this purchase of 100 trams, 100 electric buses, 100 trolleybuses. We will have 22 more trolleybuses on the PNRR”Nicușor Dan also said.
