The Minister of Transport, Information Technology and Communications Danail Papazov and the Minister of Regional Development Desislava Terzieva together with the chairman of the Managing Board of Road Infrastructure Agency Stefan Chaikov monitored the progress on the construction of Lot 2 of Struma highway “Dupnitza - Blagoevgrad”. The project is co-financed by EU Cohesion Fund and the national budget under Operational Programme Transport 2007-2013.

The implementation of OP Transport develops at a good pace as at the moment there are no delays in repayment to the beneficiaries, announced Minister Papazov. About 60 per cent of the programme budget has already been repaid.

Construction works in the section are according to schedule, said Minister Terzieva. There are significant works in progress at big facilities and two tunnels on the line Dupnitza – Blagoevgrad, the first being at the village of Blatino and the other – at Levski residential area in the village of Kocherinovo. Parallel to construction works there are also some archaeological studies being carried out on the 12 sites on the line. Archaeologists have completed the works on three of them. We work in great cooperation with the construction workers and we help each other in our daily work, said the archaeologists.

The section Dupnitza – Blagoevgrad is 37.48 km long and is located on the territories of the municipalities of Kyustendil and Blagoevgrad. The section starts at about 1 km North-West of the village of Blatino and ends at about 400 m after the road junction at Blagoevgrad – the crossroad with ІІІ-106 Road. The section runs along the area between the River German and the already existing railway line. Four road junctions along the line are envisaged: Dupnitza South (with II-62 Road), Boboshevo (with III-104 Road), Kocherinovo and Blagoevgrad (with ІІІ-106 Road). The project includes the construction of two tunnels each up to 500 m long on the territory of the municipality of Kyustendil. The road sections near the villages of Blatino, Usoika, Belo Pole and Levski residential area in Kyustendil will be noise proof and there will be subways and overpasses.

The consortium "Struma-LOT 2" which includes: "Impreza" AD, Italy, "GBS Infrastructure Construction" Ltd., Bulgaria and "Putstroi - 92" AD Bulgaria, is the contractor for the construction works. The value of the contract is 358 722 000.00 levs with VAT. The construction supervision is carried out by DZZD "Obedinenie" Struma-PP, which involves “Putinvestinzhenering” Ltd. and “Putproekt”- EOOD Sofia. Their contract amounts to 2 949 843.00 levs with VAT. The deadline for completion of the project is the spring of 2015.

The total length of highway "Struma" - from Daskalovo to the Greek border is 150 km. It is part of the Trans European Corridor № IV and Trans-European highway "North - South". The constructions of 68.9 km of it are financed with funds under the OP "Transport" 2007-2013. In July last year the construction of Lot 1 Dolna Dikania – Dupnitsa /16.78 km/ was completed. By October this year Lot 4 Sandanski - Kulata /14, 7 km/ should be ready.