REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, BUCHAREST -- Romania and Bulgaria will begin the feasibility studies for two new bridges over their natural boundary Danube, the Ministry of Development announced Monday in a release.

The new bridges will connect Nikopol in Bulgaria with Turnu Magurele in Romania, and Silistra in Bulgaria with Calarasi in Romania, informed the Ministry of Regional Development and Public Administration, adding that the two governments decided at their joint session on Friday to begin firstly with the feasibility study for the bridge between Turnu Magurele and Nicopole.

The two neighboring countries will apply for financing via the program INTERREG V-A Romania-Bulgaria 2014-2020 and will try to get funds also from other sources to be agreed by both sides, informed the ministry.

The pre-feasibility study finished last year showed that "the total estimated value of the investment project could reach up to 208.9 million euros (226.5 million U.S. dollars)."

The Interreg V-A Romania-Bulgaria aims to enable the area to be a region to live, study, work, visit and invest in, by seizing the unique growth initiatives and opportunities offered by the development of transversal and horizontal flows on the area's backbone, the Danube River and the Black Sea corridor.

Romania and Bulgaria share a 470-km border along the Danube that has only two bridges connecting them. The first one, the "Friendship Bridge" between Romania's Giurgiu and Bulgaria's Ruse, was opened in 1954, while the new one Calafat in Romania and Vidin in Bulgaria was inaugurated in 2013.

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