The eighth regular meeting of the Monitoring Committee of OP Transport took a decision on extension of the scope of the programme.

The forum was unveiled by Deputy Minister of Transport, Information Technologies and Communications and Authorizing Officer of OP Transport Management Authority Ivailo Moskovski. In his address he presented briefly the programme implementation saying there are already 40 approved projects accounting for about 30% of the total budget or some 594 million EUR. "We are aware that the biggest challenges, related to OP Transport are still ahead but this makes us ambitious to work harder and undertake specific commitments," Deputy Minister Moskovski added.

The European Commission representatives underscored the role of the programme for the development of Bulgaria's infrastructure. In view to its successful implementation, however, an analysis of the progress achieved and the work that could be done by the end of the programming period should be made, they added.

It was stressed at the meeting that regardless of the multiple clear signals by the European Commission and the measures undertaken by the Managing Authority, in the person of the Ministry of Transport, Information Technologies and Communications, there is still no reaction on the part of the two big beneficiaries, the Road Infrastructure Agency and the Railway Infrastructure National Agency.

The Monitoring Committee also recommended extension of the scope of OP Transport and the measure was accepted. New projects within all priority axes were included, as the idea is to ensure European financing for the ones being at a most advanced stage. Sofia Chief Architect Peter Dikov presented the project, Building of Calotina-Sofia Motorway. He explained that the municipality, jointly with the Road Infrastructure Agency, have already been actively working on it. The project has a provisional value of 350 million BGN and was included in Priority Axis 2, Development of Road Infrastructure along the Trans-European and Major National Transport Axes.

The beneficiaries' reports, presented before the Monitoring Committee, have made it clear that tender procedures for the Sofia-Plovdiv Railway Line, the Maritsa Motorway and  the Vessel Traffic Management Information System (VTMIS) will be announced by the year's end. It is being considered whether the completion of the Plovdiv-Svilengrad railway project could be financed under the operational programme.

The participants in the meeting paid attention to the positive signals related to the implementation of OP Transport that was recognized by the European Commission at the beginning of the year, when it gave a positive compliance assessment for the programme. The ongoing projects were also discussed. 35 % of the activities, related to the extension of the Sofia Underground have been completed. A ground-breaking ceremony of the Svilengrad-Turkish border railway line project was conducted by the middle of last month. The River Information System will be launched at the beginning of next week. Work within the Trakiya Motorway project is also performed within schedule.

Today, the European Commission representatives will tour the construction site of the second line of the Sofia underground to see how one of the biggest EU-financed infrastructure projects is being implemented in this country.