site.btaUPDATED Regional Development Minister Ivanov: No Illegal Construction Found on Hemus Motorway

Regional Development and Public Works Minister Ivan Ivanov said during a Friday hearing in Parliament that no illegal construction has been found on Hemus motorway.

The hearing was in connection with the minister's issuance of construction permit No. 6 dated February 4, 2025. Hemus motorway from the end of the Pleven road junction (intersection with road II-35) to road III-301, including the Letnitsa road junction from km 139+340=137+911.52 to km 167+572=166+144.09, in the part of the Hemus motorway sub-unit from km 152+500 to km 167+572=166+144.09). The proposal for the hearing was submitted by Violeta Komitova from the Morality, Unity, Honour (MECh) parliamentary group.

"According to the practice of the Directorate for National Construction Control and the documents that I have found, no illegal construction has been found for this section or any other section of the Hemus Motorway, according to the Spatial Planning Act, and there has been no decree issued for such construction and for its suspension neither during the caretaker government nor during the regular Cabinets," the minister said.

He said that as of now, two construction permits have been issued for section 4 of Hemus Motorway - the first one is dated December 16, 2024 and is for engineering networks - reconstruction of a gas transmission line, 20 kilovolt power lines and an irrigation pipeline. The second is the construction permit dated February 4, 2025 for the construction of km 152 + 500 to km 167 + 572 with a length of 15.072 km, part of Lot 4 of the Motorway - from the Drenov road junction to the village of Doirentsi to the Letnitsa road junction, with the Road Infrastructure Agency as the contracting authority and AvtomagistralI EAD as the contractor.

All planning approval procedures have been followed for the issuance of the construction permit, the minister said. With the construction permit for this 15-km stretch of road, the soil layer has been removed on about 5 km and nothing has been done on the remaining 10 km. No construction work has been done in the stretch and no building permit is required for removal of the humus layer and hence it cannot be classified as illegal construction either, the minister said. No administrative proceedings have been initiated for the section since 2021 and, accordingly, no orders have been issued for the suspension and/or removal of an illegal construction within the meaning of the Spatial Planning Act, Ivanov added.

Regional Development and Public Works Minister Ivan Ivanov signed in early February a construction permit for nearly 14 kilometres of the Hemus Motorway. 

Violeta Komitova (former Regional Development Minister) said this week that in 2021 the Directorate for National Construction Control carried out a drone inspection of Lots 4 and 5 and found that there were sections with illegal construction. "If Minister Ivanov has dared to issue a building permit on a section with illegal construction, I see it as an amnesty for illegal construction in Bulgaria," Violeta Komitova said at the time.

On the Hemus highway, Minister Ivanov said late last week that for the most part the lots that are scheduled for construction are at an advanced stage in terms of issuing documents. The first lot from Boaza to the Letnitsa road junction is expected to open in 2025.