Approximately 35 million Lev must be paid by the end of the year under OP “Transport” to achieve 50% completion. That was said by the Deputy Minister of Transport, Information Technology and Communications, Petar Kirov, at today’s “Good practices in the construction of “Trakia” Lots 2,3 and 4” conference. In his words, there are only two and a half years until the end of the programming period by which 1 960 million Lev must be utilized in order to achieve 100% completion. “This is an attainable goal but we must not allow for project delays, because we are entering a stage in which any impediment could endanger the utilization of EU funds” he added.

According to the Deputy Minister Kirov, alongside road projects, during the next programming period, efforts must be focused in the development of railway infrastructure. “Our main priority is to finalize all directions in the Serbian-Turkish/Greek border and the modernization of the Plovdiv-Burgas track. This means that by 2020, Bulgaria should have approximately 600km of rail lines operating at a speed of up to 160 km/h” said Petar Kirov.

Another priority for the next programming period of OP “Transport” will be the construction of intermodal terminals as they provide the link between road, rail and waterway transport, without which our country cannot offer competitive terms for hauling of goods through it.

Today’s event was attended by the Minister of Regional Development, Desislava Terzieva, Chairman of the Board of Agency “Road Infrastructure”, Lazar Lazarov, and others. The conference was organised within the framework of project “Completion of Trakia Lots 2, 3 and 4” financed by the Cohesion Fund of the European Union and the state budget through Operational Programme “Transport” 2007-2013.