site.btaStrouma Motorway Lot 2 Unveiled

Strouma Motorway  Lot 2 Unveiled

Blagoevrad, Southwestern Bulgaria, October 22 (BTA) - A newly built 37 km section of the Strouma Motorway in Southwestern Bulgaria was unveiled on Thursday. The section between Doupnitsa and Blagoevgrad, known as Lot 2, was officially launched by President Rosen Plevneliev, Prime Minister Boyko Borissov, Regional Development Minister Liliyana Pavlova, Transport Minister Ivaylo Moskovski, Health Minister Peter Moskov and Road Infrastructure Agency Chairman Lazar Lazarov.

The ceremony at Blagoevgrad was also attended by MPs, regional government leaders of Blagoevgrad and Kyustendil, local government officials, builders and members of the general public.

The project was co-funded by the EU Cohesion Fund and the national budget through Operational Programme "Transport 2007-2013." The programme has so far supported the building of several sections of the Strouma Motorway totalling 69 km in length.

The 150 km Strouma Motorway, running from the Bulgarian-Greek border in the direction of the Bulgarian capital Sofia, is part of the Orient/Eastern Mediterranean Corridor which transects Western Bulgaria.

Lot 2 was designed and built by a consortium including Italy's Impresa company and two Bulgarian partners. The price of the contract was 359 million leva (184 million euro).