Bulgaria Regional Development Ministry Focuses on 3 Highways

Bulgaria's Regional Devt Minister Plevneliev described three highway projects as "absolute priority". Photo by BGNES

Bulgaria's Regional Development Minister, Rosen Plevneliev, said Friday the completion of three highways was his "absolute priority".

During a press conference in which Plevneliev presented his three deputies, he made it clear that the Ministry would focus on the construction of Trakiya Highway (connecting Sofia and Burgas), Maritsa Highway (linking Trakiya Highway to the border with Turkey), and Struma Highway (linking Sofia to the border with Greece).

Plevneliev has ordered the temporary termination of the construction of Lyulin Highway connecting Sofia to the Serbian border in order to carry out an inspection of the quality of the construction work. The same goes for the rehabilitation of the "Pass of the Republic" (aka Hainboaz Pass) in the central Balkan Mountain.

Pleveneliev announced that a new public procurement procedure for the completion of Trakiya Highway would be started by September 15, 2009, and that the new executer of the project would be clear by the end of 2009.

He promised that the three highways that Borisov's government said would be ready by the end of its 4-year term, namely Trakiya, Maritsa, and Lyulin - would be funded 100% with EU money. The government might seek loans from the World Bank and the European Investment Bank for some of the current expenditures on those projects.

With regard to the National Agency "Road Infrastructure", which is going to come under the control of the Regional Development Ministry, Plevneliev said that this institution had to be "unpolitical".

Another of his priorities will be the rehabilitation and construction of the water supply and sewerage network.

 

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