In brief
- The Government has topped up by 137.34 thousand lei the compensation money for the expropriations on section 3 of the Drum expres Craiova-Pitești (the Craiova-Pitești expressway), in seven localities in Olt County.
- 167 positions are being updated, 17 are newly added and 29 are struck off the list following the systematic cadastre and the mergers of plots.
- For the 17 new positions the expropriation procedure is only beginning now. Their owners enter the procedure without ever having been included in the 2021 decision.
Published: Official Gazette of Romania (Monitorul Oficial) no. 707 of 26 August 2026
In force from: 26 August 2026
Another seventeen owners in Olt County are finding out only now that their land falls inside the corridor of the Drum expres Craiova-Pitești (the Craiova-Pitești expressway), almost five years after the state approved the expropriations on that section. Government Decision no. 651/2026, published in Official Gazette of Romania no. 707 of 26 August 2026, tops up by 137.34 thousand lei the compensation approved by Government Decision no. 1.193/2021 and rewrites the list of owners for section 3. It is the second correction of this kind in the past week, after the one on the Sibiu-Făgăraș motorway.
The works cross the localities of Bărăști, Colonești, Optași-Măgura, Priseaca, Scornicești, Tătulești and Valea Mare, in Olt County. The expropriating authority is the Romanian state, acting through the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure and the National Company for Road Infrastructure Administration (CNAIR).
The money comes from the state budget, through the ministry’s budget, under chapter 84.01 „Transporturi” (transport), subchapter 03 „Transport rutier” (road transport), title 56 „Proiecte cu finanțare din fonduri externe nerambursabile postaderare” (projects financed from post-accession non-reimbursable external funds), article 56.48, that is from the European Regional Development Fund, financial framework 2021-2027.
What it changes in practice
The first effect is the allocation itself. The sum of 137.34 thousand lei is added to what had been approved in 2021 for the same corridor.
The second effect concerns 167 positions in annex no. 2 to the 2021 decision. They are updated as regards the identification details of the properties, the holders of rights in rem and the individual amounts of compensation. An owner may thus find out that the expropriated area or the amount due has changed.
The third effect is the insertion of 17 new positions: one after position 1701, one after position 2393 and fifteen after position 2583. They emerged once the parcel plans and the individual cadastral documentation had been drawn up and approved, for properties lying inside the corridor approved in 2021 for which the expropriation procedure had never been triggered.
The fourth effect is the triggering of the expropriation procedure for these 17 properties, through Article III of the decision.
The fifth effect is the removal of 29 positions. Nine disappear because the systematic registration at the level of the administrative-territorial unit has been completed and because the properties have been merged. Another twenty disappear following the completion of the systematic cadastre works and the repositioning of the properties.
The sixth effect is the payment deadline. The individual amounts are transferred by the ministry into a treasury account opened in the name of the road company within no more than 30 days of the approval of the request for the opening of budget credits, under Article 4(8) of the implementing rules approved by Government Decision no. 53/2011.
The seventh effect is liability. The ministry, acting through the road company, answers for the accuracy of the data in the annex, for the way the money is used and for the correctness of the data in the documents on which the amount was based.
What has changed compared with the previous situation
The first change is the size of the list. The annex published now has 184 positions: 167 updated and 17 new. Compared with the 2021 decision, the list loses 29 positions and gains 17.
The second change is the reason behind the corrections. This is not an extension of the corridor, but a cadastral matter: parcel plans approved in the meantime, individual cadastral documentation, systematic registration completed, mergers of plots and repositioning of properties.
The third change is about money. The individual compensation values in the annex add up to 347,492.30 lei across the 200 cells of the column, of which 157,653.30 lei go to the 17 newly added positions.
The fourth change concerns the owners struck off the list. The 29 no longer appear in the expropriation corridor, which means that their properties, as they are now identified in cadastral terms, are either no longer affected or have been absorbed into other positions.
What does not change is the site. The corridor remains the one approved by Government Decision no. 1.193/2021, published in Official Gazette of Romania no. 1085 and no. 1085 bis of 12 November 2021.
Advantages and disadvantages
What it improves
- The 17 newly identified owners enter the procedure and acquire the right to compensation, instead of being left with their land occupied without any legal basis.
- Updating the holders of rights in rem corrects situations in which the compensation would have gone to a person who is no longer the owner.
- The 29 positions that have been removed take out of the procedure properties which, after the systematic cadastre, no longer exist as such.
- The deadline for transferring the money is fixed: no more than 30 days from the approval of the request for the opening of budget credits.
- The source of financing is identified down to the budget article, so the allocation can be checked.
- Liability for the accuracy of the data is expressly assigned to the ministry and to the road company.
What remains a problem
- The 17 new owners find out after almost five years that their property lies inside the corridor, a period during which they were unable to deal with it freely.
- The decision does not publish the total of the annex and does not show how the top-up of 137.34 thousand lei is made up.
- Owners whose individual amounts go down through the update cannot tell from the act what the previous value was.
- The annex is printed in landscape format, over eight pages, with no total row, so it is hard for the person concerned to check.
- The act makes no provision for individually informing the 29 owners struck off the list.
- There is no deadline by which the company must actually pay, only one for transferring the money into its account.
Practical advice
- If you own land in Bărăști, Colonești, Optași-Măgura, Priseaca, Scornicești, Tătulești or Valea Mare, check the annex in the official edition attached to this article, from page 4 onwards.
- Look yourself up by the name in the owner column and by the cadastral number, not only by position. The numbering in the new annex does not match the one in the 2021 decision.
- If you appear at one of the 17 new positions, the expropriation procedure is only starting for you. You have the full procedural rights under Law no. 255/2010, including challenging the amount.
- If your amount has changed, ask the road company for the valuation report on which it was based. The act does not publish it.
- Check whether your position is among the 29 that have been removed. If it is, ask in writing for the explanation: merger of plots, repositioning or completion of the systematic registration.
- Keep your land book extract up to date. The holders in the annex are updated on the basis of the cadastral records, not on the basis of declarations.
- The 30-day deadline concerns the transfer of the money from the ministry to the company, not the payment to you. For the payment, follow the procedure under Law no. 255/2010.
- If you disagree with the compensation, the challenge is brought under Law no. 255/2010, and challenging it does not suspend the transfer of the ownership right.
Frequently asked questions
How much is the Government allocating?
Which localities are concerned?
How many positions are changing?
Why are new positions appearing only now?
Why are positions disappearing from the list?
Who pays and within what time?
Who answers for the correctness of the data?
Where can I find the full list?
Editorial analysis
The decision does something necessary and does it late. The expropriation corridor was approved in November 2021, and only now, after the parcel plans and the individual cadastral documentation have been approved, has it come to light that seventeen properties inside it had never entered the procedure. For their owners, five years have gone by with land sitting, in practice, in the corridor of an expressway, without the state having triggered the expropriation and without their having received anything. The act repairs the situation, but does not explain how it came about.
A top-up does not always start with the expropriating authority. At the Timișeni-Pinoasa lignite mine, two final judgments pushed the compensation for eight properties in Gorj from 48,133 to 113,693 lei.
The money side remains opaque. The act approves a top-up of 137.34 thousand lei, while the annex lists individual compensation values which, added together, come to 347,492.30 lei across the 200 cells of the column. Of these, 157,653.30 lei go to the 17 newly added positions alone, that is more than the top-up approved. The natural explanation is that the top-up is a net figure, in which the increases at some updated positions are offset by decreases at others, but the decision says so nowhere and publishes no total. An owner who wants to check whether his amount has gone up or down has no way of doing so, because the new annex does not set the old value alongside the new one.
The third observation is one of form, but with practical consequences. The annex is printed in landscape format, over eight pages, with fifteen columns and no total row. Anyone looking for their position has to follow a single row across eight rotated pages. The numbering does not help either: the position in the new annex differs from the one in the 2021 decision, and the two numbers sit in adjacent columns, which is correct, but calls for attention.
What should be changed
- Publishing, in the annex, the previous value alongside the updated one, for the positions that have been changed. It would show each owner whether his amount has gone up or down and would make the net top-up approved by Article I verifiable.
- A total row at the end of the annex. This is the practice in other expropriation decisions published in the same period, and its absence here makes any quick check of the amount impossible.
- A written notification to the owners at the 17 newly added positions. For them the procedure starts now, after five years in which the property was already inside the corridor, and publication in the Official Gazette of Romania is not a realistic way of finding out.
- An explanation in the explanatory memorandum as to the cause of the initial omission. Seventeen properties left outside the procedure on an approved corridor are not an ordinary cadastral error, and repeating it costs money and time on every section.
- A deadline for the actual payment to the owners, not only for the transfer of the money to the company. The 30 days in the act stop at the treasury account of the expropriating authority.
- Informing the 29 owners struck off the list. Leaving the corridor changes the legal position of their land just as much as entering it, and the act makes no provision for any communication.
Original text of the legal act
The text below is reproduced in Romanian, the official form of publication.
The full text, as published in the Official Gazette of Romania
Official Gazette of Romania no. 707 of 26 August 2026 16 pages PDF, 136 KB the act starts on page 2
Open the official PDFDownload the PDF
The viewer is not shown on small screens. Use the buttons above to open or download the file.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. For specific situations, consult a licensed attorney or tax advisor.