The interim mayor of the capital, Stelian Bujduveanu, declared on Thursday that there must be an underground parking lot near the North Station, but it is ruled out that it will be built on the site where the park in front of the station is currently located.
„CFR received the urban planning certificate from the city hall to rehabilitate the North Station in several stages. (…) The City Hall of the Capital wants to be actively involved in how that entire area develops. It is very good that they are starting to repair the station this fall, but the location in front of the station must be arranged by the city hall. I will tell you something very directly, you will not see us building underground parking lots over the parks in Bucharest. It is out of the question that in front of the North Station, where we have that park, we cut down the trees to build an underground parking lot, but a parking lot must exist in the vicinity of the station. And then, from the analyses we are doing at the City Hall of the Capital, it emerged that the area by the fountains is a perfect location to connect an underground parking lot with access to the station, with access to the metro and, just as we are doing at the ground floor Unirii, we can connect the tram above the station. All this urban regeneration must be consistent with what the Ministry of Transport is doing at the station level,” Bujduveanu said, in a press conference held in Herastrau Park.
He mentioned that the Ministry of Transport, through CFR, should submit the documentation as soon as possible for issuing the authorization necessary to restore the tracks and platforms.
„But the project they have with the covers over the station, from our point of view, does not complete that area properly and we came up with a proposal, that we, the Bucharest City Hall, intervene with a solution that is in accordance with what is in front of the station, so that those platforms behind the station are also covered, but not just by a sheet of metal, by a glass, covered with a solution that has been used all over the world,” said Bujduveanu.
AGERPRES