ARHIVELE OLTENIEI - Universitatea din Craiova

80Şerban PătraşcuOnce with the appointing of a new mayor, the general Dumitru B.Popescu 3 , were intensified the efforts of the local administration regarding thesanitation of the city, the repairing and the paving of the streets and therealization of a systematization plan. The authorities were also preoccupiedwith the development of some local services, which could guarantee thosenecessary utilities, so far contracted from different suppliers. And because theCity Hall annually needed for its constructions two millions pieces of bricks, themayor order the founding of a brickyard “which could obtain a better quality ofbrick than the one manually made, already existing on the market, and lessdurable than the one made in the factory 4 ”. Right on, in 1942, the moment whenwas created the Tramways and Trolleybuses Service, the local authoritiesimmediately canceled the contract made with a firm from Bucharest which hadleased the public transportation from Craiova. 5Among those directly interested to introduce the tramways in thelocality, was the Autonomous Administration of the Romanian Railways. In thespring of 1942, the Administration of the Romanian Railway announced theauthorities that, after the founding of the railway Craiova – Bucuresti, viaCaracal, on which the works were carried on 6 , and which helped transformingCraiova into an important junction-rail, was decided the starting of aconstruction and modernization program which allowed: the construction of amodern railway station, of a merchandise station and also the construction ofsome workshops 7 . As a completion of this project, the authorities had engaged to3 He was the mayor of Craiova during 1 st April 1942 – 9 th of October 1944, when he wasarrested, along with other local authorities, by the units of NKVD which had occupied the city (cf.Misiunile lui A. I. Vâşinski în România. Din istoria relaţiilor româno-sovietice, 1944-1946.Documente secrete, Bucureşti, 1997, p. 77-78, the document nr. 8).4 Buletinul Oficial al Municipiului Craiova, an. IV, nr. 3-5, 1stMay-15 th June 1943,p. 2-3.5 The routes on which the public transportation was being made were those establishedby an order of the Local Authorities from 20 th July 1938: 1. Bariera Calafatului – Calea Dunarii –Bulevardul Romanescu – Autogara; 2. Bariera Caracalului – Calea Caracalului – strada ElenaDoamna – strada Ghica Vodă – Bulevardul I. G. Duca (former Tabaci) – Autogara; 3. BarieraBucureştilor – strada Cuza Vodă – strada Principele Nicolae – strada Negru Vodă – strada Buzeşti– strada Sf. Arhangheli – strada Dima Popovici – strada Unirii – Bulevardul Ştirbey – Autogara; 4.Bariera Amaradiei – Calea Amaradiei – strada Jianu – strada Libertatii – strada 10 mai – Autogara;5. Bariera Severinului – Calea Severinului – strada Jianu – strada 10 Mai – Autogara; 6. BarieraBrestei – Calea Brestei – strada Libertăţii – strada 10 Mai – Autogara; 7. Bariera Bucovatului –Bulevardul Stirbey – Autogara (Buletinul Oficial al Municipiului Craiova, an I, nr. 8, 1 st August1938, p. 74 -75).6 Soon after, because the evolution of the war wasn’t favorable, the works on the railwayceased.7 The Romanian Railway’s workshops and the Station would be severely damaged bythe Anglo-American bombardment from the spring and the summer of 1944 (cf. the newspaperSituatia, an.I, nr. 33 from 19 th November 1944, p. 1 and Situatia from 18 th October 1946).