It is important for us the Cohesion Fund and the European Regional Development Fund to continue providing the necessary support for the realization of the Trans-European Transport Network in the period up to 2030. This was stated by Deputy Minister of Transport, Information Technology and Communications Anguel Popov during the Austrian Forum "Transport Infrastructure", which took place in Sofia. In his words, the financial support from the European funds is of great importance for the less developed regions, where huge efforts are still needed the missing connections to be constructed and the bottlenecks in the transport networks to be removed.
Deputy Minister Anguel Popov pointed out that even after 2020 the Bulgarian side will continue working on the construction of the north-south railway infrastructure from Vidin to Kulata as well as the connections to our western neighbors Serbia and Macedonia. The funds needed for these projects are just over EUR 4 billion, he said. Anguel Popov emphasized that the improvement of the railway connections in Northern Bulgaria is of great importance as well. Depending on the funds that will be provided in the next programming period, opportunities for the preparation and modernization of the Ruse - Varna, Sofia - Varna and Ruse - Dimitrovgrad railway lines will be sought.
"The priority road projects which are planned to be realized after 2020 are related to the improvement of the transport infrastructure in Northern Bulgaria through the construction of sections of “Hemus” Motorway, “Ruse - Veliko Tarnovo” Motorway, “Vidin – Sofia” Speedway, as well as and the completion of the road connection with Serbia" the deputy minister added. He specified that the total amount of the necessary funds is about EUR 1.5 billion.
Anguel Popov said that currently with European funding we develop priority corridors from the main Trans-European Transport Network, which pass through the territory of Bulgaria "Orient/East-Mediterranean" and "Rain-Danube". "We are expecting at the end of the current programming period to have a fully completed rail connection, providing modern transport conditions from Sofia via Plovdiv to Burgas and to Svilengrad - Turkish/Greek border", Anguel Popov noted.
