Ministry of Transport, Information Technology and Communications

The Deputy-Minister of Transport, Information Technology and Communications Petar Kirov announced today during the national forum “Business – Government” that 2,214 billion levs have been repaid to the beneficiaries under Operational Programme “Transport 2007 – 2013”. The Minister of Regional Development, Desislava Terzieva, the Minister of Environment and Water, Iskra Mihaylova-Koparova and the Deputy-Minister of Transport, Information Technology and Communications, Georgi Todorov took part in the “Infrastructure - Future of the Regions in Bulgaria” panel.

“Over 140 km of motorways have been constructed and put into operation under OP “Transport” and some 125 km are under construction”, reported Deputy-Minister Kirov. In his words Bulgaria has already constructed the first railway line allowing speeds up to 160 km/h and about 74 thousand people use the metropolitan subway every day. These are some of the results of the major projects implemented under the programme.

Petar Kirov explained that the new Operational Programme "Transport and Тransport Infrastructure" is make some rebalancing in two directions. In his words firstly there will be equal investments in road and railway infrastructure. Proportional investments are planned for the North and South of Bulgaria. "Among the goals of our country is the successful absorption about 700 million levs under the Connecting Europe Facility", said Deputy Minister Kirov.

The priority projects in the railway sector under OP "Transport and Transport Infrastructure" 2014 - 2020, envisage the completion of the rehabilitation of the line Plovdiv – Burgas, the construction of the Sofia – Septemvri line, the construction of the Karnobat - Sindel line and the modernization of the Ruse - Varna line. In the road sector the efforts will be directed towards completing the third Lot of Struma highway. Depending on the remaining resources some construction works will be carried out in the section Vidin - Botevgrad, Lot 1 of Hemus highway and building of the tunnel under mount Shipka.