The Prime Minister of the Republic of Bulgaria Boyko Borissov, along with Minister of Transport, Information Technologies and Communications Ivailo Moskovski, EU Funds Minister Tomislav Donchev, European Council President Herman van Rompuy and Sofia Mayor Yordanka Fandakova unveiled today the new stretch of the Sofia Underground. The stretch is 2.4-km long and connects Mladost Quarter and Tsarigradsko Chausse Blvd.

The project value is 121,807,485 EUR as the purchase of 18 new trains is envisaged in this amount. Two new stations and a buffer parking with a capacity for 1,300 cars have been constructed.

The first two trains out of a total of 18 ordered within the project will be supplied in May. The other trains will be delivered on a regular basis to Metropoliten EAD until the month of October. Six of them will run along the stretch opened today, while the others will be for the second line.  

The project beneficiary, Metropoliten EAD, says that due to the good organization of work the average value of 1 km of construction of the underground is about two times as low compared to other European cities. The stretch was constructed without disrupting traffic along the busy boulevards, Alexander Malinov and Andrei Saharov.

The Sofia Underground extension project is financed under OP Transport with grant aid from the Cohesion Fund and co-financing by the beneficiary. Due to the good performance in regards to the absorption of the EU funds, the European Commission approved the financing of the stretch up to the Sofia Airport within the current programming period. The beneficiary has already launched a bidding procedure and the project is expected to be completed by 2014.