For first time in 50 years, a new railway tunnel was built in Bulgaria. This is what the Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Policies and Minister of Transport and Communications Hristo Alexiev stated during an inspection of progress in the construction of the Elin Pelin - Kostenets Railway Section.
"Tunnel construction in railway transport was neglected for a long time. I welded the projects at a standstill and did my best to get them off the ground on a good, fast schedule. The first serious result is a fact", Hristo Alexiev stated. He expressed hope that with the good mobilization of the State, the contractor and the supervisor, the project will be completed on time – by 2027.
More than 200 workers with the help of more than 100 machines worked for a year and a half to dig Tunnel No. 1 with a length of one km, the Deputy Prime Minister added.
The railway section Elin Pelin - Kostenets is part of the project for the modernization of the speed railway from Sofia to Burgas. The funds are provided by the Operational Program "Transport and Transport Infrastructure".
The project covers a double railway tunnel with a length of almost 7 km, which has never existed in Bulgaria. Dozens of facilities will be built, including two tunnels with two tubes with a total length of 1.5 km, a road overpass and an underpass, 8 bridges and overpasses, signaling and telecommunication systems, a new Elin Pelin station and a Pobit Kamak railway stop.
The section between Elin Pelin and Vakarel is the hardest and most difficult to finish of the entire route between Sofia and Plovdiv.
The contractor is the Turkish company DZZD "Cen-Dui Railway Elin Pelin". The value of the contract is BGN 498.8 million excluding VAT.
Today, the Ambassador of the Republic of Turkey Aylin Sekizkök and representatives of the local government got acquainted with the construction progress. The management of the National Railway Infrastructure Company also participated in the inspection.
