Ministry of Transport, Information Technology and Communications

The Prime Minister of the Republic of Bulgaria Marin Raykov and the Minister of Transport, Information Technology and Communications Kristian Krastev presented the 18 kilometer section of  the railroad line Svilengrad - Turkish border.

"The successful completion of such projects will give us good grounds when applying for the purchase of new trains for the next programming period of the OP" Transport ", said Minister Krastev. He said that within the first entirely completed railway project funded under the Operational Program "Transport", the largest railway bridge in Bulgaria that has been build. The facility over the Maritsa River is unique by its design and implementation, such has not been built in Bulgaria for the last 40 years. The length of the bridge is almost 500 meters, and its height reaches 7 meters.

Prime Minister Marin Raykov thanked everyone for the good work and highlighted the importance of the project for the railway connectivity between Europe and Asia

The value of the construction contract is almost BGN 70 million, and the newly built road is entirely electrified and allows speed of 160 km /h.

The "Electrification and reconstruction of Svilengrad - Turkish border" project has been executed and  co-financed by the Cohesion Fund of the European Union, through the Operational Programme "Transport" 2007-2013. Beneficiary of the project is the National Railway Infrastructure  Companyany and contractor - the Czech company "OHL ZS" JSC.

The event was attended by representatives of NRIC, the Turkish railways, regional and local administration.