site.btaCouncil of Ministers Decides to Allocate BGN 776 Mln for Road Maintenance and Construction

The Council of Ministers decided to allocate a little over BGN 776 million for road maintenance and construction, said Minister of Regional Development and Public Works Ivan Shishkov after a meeting of the caretaker government on Wednesday. Almost BGN 158 million will go towards winter road maintenance.

Money has been secured for the already completed construction of part of the Hemus motorway in the section between Belokopitovo and Bukhovtsi. Funds are also set aside for the section of the Vidin-Botevgrad road, where a 7-kilometre section will be built within three months. The Ministry of Finance will allocate money to strengthen a landslide on the Struma motorway (near the Zheleznitsa tunnel) and within three months traffic will be opened in the direction from Greece to Sofia. Funds were also set aside for the Europe motorway's section near Kalotina.

A total of BGN 438 million has also been secured for payment of old assignments by the Interior Ministry and the Road Infrastructure Agency to road companies in the 2020-2021 period. These assignments were without secured funding and created extreme tension between the state and the road sector, Shishkov said.

This money will only pay for current repairs. The basic repairs for which the state owes money to the companies remain unpaid because the National Assembly did not want to find a way to regulate illegal construction, which in practice caused serious damage to the construction industry, the Minister pointed out.