Ministry of Transport, Information Technology and Communications

Due to exhaustion of the funds under priority Axis 1 for railway infrastructure development along the Trans-European and the major national transport axes under the Operational Programme ’Transport’, one of our priorities is to provide funds for the implementation of the railway projects. That was stated by Mr. Danail Papazov, Minister of Transport, Information Technology and Communications today during a press conference at MTITC.

The amount of about BGN 90 million is needed for the implementation of the project and the preparation for modernization of the railway section Vidin – Medkovec, modernization of the railway section Sofia – Septemvri, Phase 2 of the Rehabilitation of railway line Plovdiv – Burgas, modernization of the sections Sofia – Dragoman, Sofia – Pernik – Radomir, development of railway junctions Sofia, Plovdiv and Burgas.

The need to ensure the implementation of the railway projects is underlined in a letter by the European Commission dated 29 November, 2012. Providing funds for the implementation will guarantee the fulfillment of the Bulgarian commitments regarding the cohesion policy in railway transport sector. The delayed soution of this matter has led to ’blocking’ of the change (modification) to the text of the Operational Programme. Minister Papazov informed that the decision to provide funds for this activity was taken at the yesterday's meeting of the Council of Ministers.

With regards to the priorities of the new team of the Ministry Mr. Danail Papazov also said that the issue of financing the projects in progress, for which no sufficient funds have been provided for their full implementation, must be resolved. Among them are the modernization of the railway section Parvomai – Svilengrad: 54 mil. Euro; Septemvri – Plovdiv: 30 mil. Euro. In the near future it is expected to solve the problem by developing several options with the assistance of the Ministry of Finance. By solving this problem, as well as resolving the preparation of future railway projects MTITC is of the opinion that there will be no impediments to the approval of the amendments to the OP "Transport".