Initiative Inked To Bridge the Danube between Serbia and Romania

Danube River (BetaPhoto/Dragan Gojic)

An initiative to connect Serbia and Romania by bridging the Danube before it enters a gorge called the Iron Gates, was signed in the Serbian settlement on Golubac on July 31, state public broadcaster RTS has reported.

Heads of seven border municipalities in both countries believe that such a bridge would propel the development of the Danube region.

Although the distance between Serbia’s right bank of the Danube and Romania’s Moldova Noua, laying across the river, seem apparently small, the road trip is about 200 kilometers long. 

The initiative, signed by Serbia’s Golubac and six municipalities in Romania, will be forwarded to the two countries’ relevant ministries and cabinets. The structure should span 370 meters over the Danube and would be the only bridge on the river in Serbia between Smederevo and Kladovo.

The idea of bridging the Danube between Serbia’s Golubac and Romania’s settlement of Coronini, the narrowest section of the river just before it enters the Iron Gates, was inspired by construction of an expressway leading to astern Serbia. Heads of Romanian municipalities say that Belgrade is five times closer to Romania’s capital Bucharest than these two regions looking at each other across the Danube.

„The bridge could give new life to our port which was once the biggest industrial port in the region, and would also cut road transport costs for our goods and increase trade with Serbia,” the head of the Romanian municipality Moldova Noua, Jan Kiselica, has said.

The initiators believe that a new bridge across the Danube would foster the development of Serbia’s districts of Branicevo, Bor and Podunavlje and connect around million people on both river banks.