Ooni Koda
  1. Home
  2. /
  3. Newsfeed
  4. /
  5. Bucharest City Mayor Firea, Madrid counterpart Castrillo set...

Bucharest City Mayor Firea, Madrid counterpart Castrillo set up working groups on urban mobility, tourism

November 16, 2018

Bucharest General Mayor Gabriela Firea and Madrid Mayor Manuela Carmena Castrillo on Wednesday agreed on creating joint working groups for the development of urban mobility, smart city, and tourism projects, according to a press statement released by the Bucharest City Hall (PMB) on Thursday. At the meeting, which took place at PMB, the two officials decided that a group of Madrid experts will come to Bucharest soon to start, jointly with PMB specialists, concrete projects in two of the areas mentioned in a memorandum signed recently in the capital of Spain: streamlining traffic and tourism. “I hope that we will form as soon as possible joint working groups together with Madrid specialists to discuss the most important areas of Bucharest’s development, especially road traffic, which is a problem with the capital of Romania, which we work hard to resolve. We have approved a mobility plan, bought 400 new Euro 6 buses, we will buy 100 electric buses, 100 trams, 100 trolleybuses, and 100 other CNG buses. We have also started infrastructure works to streamline traffic, widen roads and create fly-troughs in the busiest parts of Bucharest,” said Firea. Castrillo highlighted the fact that her administration has implemented restrictive measures to streamline traffic and also to reduce pollution. “We have recently set a new norm for all of Madrid, which will come into force on November 30, under which it will no longer be able for people to drive at speeds of more than 30km/h in the city, in daytime or nighttime. Traffic will be slower but more fluent. There are protesters, but we are confident that people will support us. At the same time, we provide incentives to taxi drivers who buy clean cars without any imposition. I believe tough measures are needed so that we can reduce pollution in major cities and thus contribute to increasing the lifespans of citizens. Respiratory disease statistics, for example, are a good indicator of the degree of pollution in a city,” she said. She explained that in recent years efforts have been made in the capital of Spain to modernise the mass transit fleet by purchasing less polluting vehicles. In October, Firea and Castrillo signed a memorandum of understanding between the two capitals at the Madrid City Hall, identifying a range of areas in which they are interested in developing collaboration: sustainable development, from the perspective of the EU’s Agenda 2030, infrastructure development, education, culture and tourism.

The post Bucharest City Mayor Firea, Madrid counterpart Castrillo set up working groups on urban mobility, tourism appeared first on Nine O' Clock.

Read in full - click here
Bucharest takes top spot in ranking of most affordable European capitals to live in

A new ranking has revealed the most affordable European capitals to live in, with Bucharest, Romania, topping the list.  The ranking was compiled by personal finance experts at Finansvalp by taking into account data from the cost-of-living website Numbeo in order to create an affordability index. Every European capital city was measured and given a […]

Artists from six European countries come to Europavox Festival Bucharest in April

Europavox Festival Bucharest, an event aiming to highlight some of the newest and most interesting live music acts from all across Europe, returns to Control Club this spring for its fourth edition. Artists from six European countries, along with two up-and-coming local bands, will perform at the festival on April 3-4. Dutch singer-songwriter Pip Blom, […]

Romanian officials mark 20 years of NATO membership

Romanian officials marked 20 years since the country joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) on Friday, March 29, noting the importance of Romania’s membership in the defensive military alliance.  On March 29, 2004, Romania officially joined NATO by submitting the documents of ratification at the US State Department, the depositary state of the North […]

Bucharest mayor says urban plans he blocked in court were billion-euro corruption scheme

The district urban plans (PUZ) endorsed by district mayors were corruption schemes generating billions of euros, Bucharest mayor Nicusor Dan argued. He said that four of the six such district urban plans (PUZs) were definitively scrapped in court, and the other two will be suspended again starting next Monday.  "The PUZs from districts 3, 4, […]

Korea’s DS Private Equity joins Romania’s Small Modular Reactors programme

Korea’s DS Private Equity (DSPE), part of Korea’s DS group, will join as a financial investor the Romanian project company RoPower, formed at this moment by state-controlled Nuclearelectrica (BVB: SNN) and private company Nova Gas and Power (the owner of the location), which is developing the Small Modular Reactors (SMR) programme with the technology provided […]

Hidroelectrica assures investments will continue despite 100% payout ratio

The CEO of Romanian hydropower group Hidroelectrica (BVB: H2O), Karoly Borbely, assured that despite the 100% dividend payout ratio proposed by the management, the company has enough resources to finance its investment and maintenance projects.  "The dividend proposal reflects the performance commitment assumed by the company's new management team to the shareholders. [...] Accelerating investments […]