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Porto Romano port cost soars to over €1 billion, government reveals naval base bill

Porto Romano port cost soars to over €1 billion, government reveals naval

Project costs for the construction of the new port do not stop only at the port infrastructure. The government has also included the construction of a naval base in the Port of Porto Romano in the list of national projects. Classified as a project with priority level A, the naval base is planned to cost 366 million euros.

This brings the total cost of the port complex in Porto Romano to 1 billion and 20 million euros, which includes the two phases of construction and the Port and the construction of the naval base.

The Albanian government has publicly stated several times that it is in negotiations with NATO for the construction of this base. In fact, on more than one occasion, Prime Minister Edi Rama and Infrastructure Minister Belinda Balluku have stated that a part of the base will be financed by NATO. But so far this version has never been officially confirmed by the North Atlantic Organization.

A source told Kapital that NATO is studying two other countries for the construction of strategic naval bases in the south of Albania.

Port costs do not stop

When it presented the project to dismantle the existing port of Durrës and build a new port in Porto Romano, the government was careful to mitigate the costs of the project. Initially, it declared only the cost of the construction of the first phase in Porto Romano of 393 million euros.

But now the costs of the project are gradually increasing as the government has revealed in the list of national projects also the costs for the second phase of the construction of the port and that for the naval base. The second phase of the port will cost another 261 million euros, while the naval base will cost 366 million euros. So in total it is about an invoice, which so far has reached 1 billion and 20 million euros.

This is the amount that Albanian citizens will pay from their taxes for the relocation of the commercial port from Durres to Porto Romano in order to build the tourist port of the Arab company Eagle Hills in the territory of the existing port of Durres.

But while the government loads billions of bills on the backs of citizens, private individuals receive the forgiven land and the profits from the sale of villas and towers in Durrës./ Kapitali

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