The minister of the Environment, Waters and Forests, Mircea Fechet, said, on Tuesday, after visiting the Răstolița Dam site, that by the summer the necessary studies could be developed in order to issue the environmental agreement and that he wants this year the hydropower plant to electricity production begins.

“Unfortunately, we are a few weeks late compared to the calendar we assumed, but from the discussions we had with Hidroelectrica representatives, we are going to have all four studies, at the latest in June, if we have well remembered, we are going to have the public consultation process and very soon we are going to have the environmental agreement issued with all the requirements of the legislation. Of course, at the same time we are working on the elaboration of the Government Decision for the removal from the forest fund of the area that is going to serve the development hydrotechnics there. I made sure that all the institutions are synchronized and I really want this year to be in a situation where we have the first kilowatt of electricity produced in the development of Răstolița,” said Mircea Fechet, in a conference of the press held at the headquarters of PNL Mureş, according to Agerpres.

Fechet said that since assuming the mandate of minister, he had discussions both with the prefect of Mures, Ciprian Dobre, and with other persons responsible in relation to the situation of the Răstolița dam.

The minister stated that, on Tuesday, he visited the dam together with the representatives of the National Agency for Environmental Protection, together with the Mures Water Basin Administration, the Water Management System, the National Agency for Protected Areas, with the representatives of the institutions that will decide on the future of the development hydropower.

“This hydropower development, unfortunately, has progressed very slowly recently and I wanted to go to the site today (…) I also visited the construction site, I found out what I was told in the past, namely that the works are very advanced and especially in the complicated context we find ourselves in today and I am primarily referring here to Russia’s aggression in Ukraine, I believe that such investments should be completed as soon as possible. I sent a very firm message to my colleagues who are going to evaluate all those studies that are to be made available to them (…). I told them that we must not lose a single day. We are in a calendar from which we have already left,” minister Mircea Fechet also said.