Drilling of Romania's longest ever railway tunnel in the Carpathians begins

The drilling of the longest ever railway tunnel in Romania, 6.9 kilometres long, started in Ürmös on 5 March, economedia.ro reports.The longest tunnel so far is 4.4 kilometres long on the Brasov-Bodzaavou line, at Keresztvár.

The project, part of the modernisation of the Apáca-Kaca railway line, is being carried out by a consortium led by the Greek company Aktor and is worth 2.7 billion lei (215.05 billion forints), reducing the current 43 kilometres of track to 28 kilometres. A further 5 kilometre tunnel will also be bored in the municipality of Rákos.

"This is the first time that CFR (the Romanian state railway company) has used a TBM Tunnel Boring Machine to drill a tunnel", economedia.ro quotes Ionut Savoiu, Secretary of State of the Ministry of Transport, who was present at the inauguration ceremony.