site.btaTransport Minister: Lv 1,400 Mln Must Be Invested in 2015 to Avoid Loss of Money under OP Transport

Transport Minister: Lv 1,400 Mln Must Be Invested in 2015 to Avoid Loss of Money under OP Transport

Sofia, December 18 (BTA) - Transport, IT and Communications
Minister Ivaylo Moskovski said in Rousse on Wednesday that if
Bulgaria is not to lose financing under Operational Programme
Transport, 1,400 million leva must be invested in projects by
the end of 2015.

He said that in the next 12 months, 260 km of railway should be
rehabilitated, the railway stations of Sofia and Bourgas should
be repaired, Plovdiv's intermodal terminal should be completed,
work on 125 km of the Struma and Maritsa Motorways and 28 km of
roads should continue, and 7.6 km of railway and seven stations
of Sofia's metro should be completed.

Several projects have run into serious delays due to compulsory
purchase procedures. In addition, the Investment Planning
Ministry of Plamen Oresharski's government further stalled
things by delaying building permits for months, said Moskovski.

As at September 15, the contracts signed under OP Transport
totalled 1,900 million euro (95.7 per cent of the programme's
budget); 1,370 million euro were paid out (68.5 per cent of the
total); and the instalments received from the EU were slightly
over 1,000 million euro (62.8 per cent of the total financing
under the programme).

A total of 1,800 million euro will be disbursed under the new
Operational Programme Transport and Transport Infrastructure
2014-2020. The priority railway projects are: rehabilitation of
the 100-km stretch between Plovdiv and Bourgas (projected value
320 million euro) and the 78-km stretch between Elin Pelin,
Ihtiman and Septemvri (740 million euro), and repairs at the
stations of Stara Zagora, Nova Zagora, Yambol and Karnobat.
Financing will be sought under the Connecting Europe Facility
for the 65-km stretch between Dragoman, Sofia and Elin Pelin
(200 million euro) and the 60-km stretch between Vidin and
Medkovets (375 million euro).

As to road construction, Lot 3 of the Struma Motorway between
Blagoavgrad and Sandanski will cost 750 million euro, 250 km of
the Hemus Motorway will cost 780 million euro and the tunnel
under Shipka Peak will cost an estimated 100 million euro.

Money has been allocated for rehabilitation of the Danube Bridge
railway, Moskovski said. The rehabilitation procedure may start
in late January 2015.

Moskovski was in the Danubian city of Rousse for a seminar on
the progress of the BULRIS Project, part of the Pan-European
navigation information system for providing safe navigation
along inland waterways, and the priorities of OP Transport and
Transport Infrastructure 2014-2020.