Albeit US-based Bechtel Corp. keeps hiring more and more people, many of whom take their families with them, the works on the Transilvania highway have reached a stumbling block due to the unclear status of the various plots of land.
After having moved its centre of operations from Savadisla to Campia Turzii to carry out the works on the first section of the motorway, the American corporation set up headquarters to supervise the second section in Chiribis, a village in Bihor County, 75 kilometres away from Oradea.
Still, the construction site organisation is behind schedule as the authorities have been unable to expropriate the land from its current owners thus far. Bechtel's management team plans to build a base in its own right in Chiribis that should take up about 20 hectares, currently owned by 27 locals.
This is where the cafeteria for the about 2,000 employees, the sleeping accommodations, the offices and rest and relaxation spaces that include a football field and a basketball court should be located. The Americans have improvised offices in the village school and are trying to persuade the locals to let their plots of land until their legal situation is regulated.
"I have no land to rent. If they want it, let them buy it, if they don't, let the State expropriate it after a just and prior reimbursement as set by the law," Lucian Porumb says. The villagers do not agree to the rent the Americans are proposing for one hectare of land: 240 euros a year, which accounts for about half of what they could get were they to sell the land on the market. In addition, 325 euros are offered in case works destroy the crops.
Oliver Laczi, an engineer Bechtel put in charge of signing the leases with the locals, has trouble understanding why they are so stubborn about this. "People get a rent and even damages for the crops that, if works are delayed, they might even get to harvest," Laczi says. Moreover, the company promised the locals it would hire one member per every family that agrees to lease its respective plot of land.
"Chiribis has 450 inhabitants and we need more than 2,000 people now. We could hire the entire village and then three times more than that," Laczi explained. As the daily meetings between the Bechtel representative and the locals have not managed to allay the fears of the peasants, the Americans suggested a meeting with the Bihor sub-prefect, Alexandru Retegan, so that they could find together solutions to speed up the expropriation.
Until such time comes, the highway is just a project on a map, because the Americans experience similar problems in Cluj County, where Bechtel's lawyers are negotiating the damages to be paid for the 84 kilometres of highway.
transilvania@zf.ro
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