Ministry of Transport, Information Technology and Communications

Sixty percent, or almost 1.2 billion Euros, of the budget of OP Transport 2007-2013 have been repaid to the beneficiaries, said the Deputy Minister of Transport, information Technology and communications Peter Kirov at the opening of the Monitoring Committee on the Programme, which took place in Velingrad on 4 and 5 June. The whole available financial resource has been agreed and the European Commission has certified over 850 million Euros or 53 per cent of the budget. Following the ongoing preparation of a certificate the amount will reach 917 million Euros.

„There is already a draft of OP Transport and Transport Infrastructure 2014 – 2020 that has been approved by the Council of ministers”, announced Peter Kirov. He added that the first two tender procedures have already started – one for the construction of the first two Lots of the third metrodiameter and another for Sofia-Kalotina motorway. The formal negotiations on OP Transport and Transport Infrastructure 2014 – 2020 with the EC are to take place by the end of the year. Seventy per cent of its budget is expected to be allocated equally to railway and road infrastructure, and the rest are to be invested in intermodal and IT projects in the transport area.

There are ongoing works on the line Dimitrovgrad-Svilengrad, as 48 per cent of Lot 1 (Dimitrovgrad-Harmanly) and almost 32 per cent of Lot 2 (Harmanly-Svilengrad) have been completed, reported National Railway infrastructure Company. The section Mihailovo-Kaloyanovets, part of the rehabilitation of the line Plovdiv-Burgas, has been commissioned, while the progress on the other two Lots is respectively 80 per cent for the section Stara Zagora-Zimnitsa and 70 per cent for the section Tzarkovski-Burgas. About 15 per cent of the three Lots on the line Septemvri-Plovdiv has been completed.

In relation to the road sector, Lot 2 (Dimitrovgrad - Harmanli) of „Maritsa” Highway is expected to be completed this year. Over 40% progress is reached at the other Lot (Orizovo - Dimitrovgrad). During the meeting, it became clear that half of the metro journeys are executed by the new metro lines, build by the funds of OP „Transport”. The overall progress on both sections of the underground railway (from Tsarigradsko Shose to Sofia Airport and from Mladost 1 to the Business Park in Mladost 4) which are currently  under construction is about 60 %, with constructions expected to be completed in April 2015.

The Monitoring Committee of the Operational Programme "Transport" was attended by representatives of local executive authorities and beneficiaries, NGOs, trade unions, experts from the European Commission and others.