Development Minister: Bulgarian State Blackmailed by Local Owners

Minister Plevneliev (left) said the future highway routes need to be secret in order to prevent local owners from blackmailing the Bulgarian state. Photo by BGNES

Bulgaria’s national interests are completely disregarded as far as the construction of highways is concerned.

This has been stated Monday morning by Bulgaria’s Regional Development Minister, Rosen Plevneliev, who told the bTV channel the technical projects for the Trakiya Highway were based on 20-year-old technologies.

At the same time, it is well-known where the Hemus Highway will pass through in Northern Bulgaria, which allows local land owners to blackmail the Bulgarian state.

“I would make secret the routes of all sorts of highways and new roads because the state is being blackmailed by people who know where these projects will be constructed, and thus sell their land at much higher prices. This situation will not be rectified without legislative changes,” Plevneliev said.

The Minister further announced that the GERB government had allocated money for the planning of the construction of the Hemus Highway, which is the least advanced of all of Bulgaria’s highway projects, and that it will be working with a World Bank team on it, trying to find a suitable public-private partnership scheme.

According to the Minister, the European Commission has clearly indicated that EU funds could be used to construct the Black Sea Highway running along Bulgaria’s coastal line.

“This means that in 2012 we need to decide whether to use a public-private partnership, or to use EU money to start building it in 2014,” Minister Plevneliev said.

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