The Prime Minister of the Republic of Bulgaria Boyko Borissov along with Minister of Transport, Information Technologies and Communications Ivailo Moskovski and Minister of Regional Development and Public Works Lilyana Pavlova dug the ground for the project on the construction of Lot 4 of the Strouma Motorway.

"The Strouma Motorway Lot 4 contract brought the resources contracted under OP Transport to over 3.602 billion BGN," Minister Ivailo Moskovski said. Ninety per cent of the programme's budget has already been contracted and some of the projects are in a final stage of implementation. "At present, we have paid over 1.015 billion BGN to the beneficiaries or about 26% of the programme budget," he added.

Eleven infrastructure projects are in the process of implementation as eight of them are big. At present, the European Commission has approved the application forms for seven large-scale projects as one of them is under consideration.

The construction of the stretch that was launched today should be completed in 23 months, while the contract value is almost 56 million BGN. The stretch is 15 km long within the Sandanski-Koulata line. The Strouma Motorway is a part of Pan-European Transport Corridor IV and of the Trans-European North-South Motorway.

The implementation of the Strouma Motorway project will be financed under OP Transport as  80% of the funding will be ensured by the EU and 20% under the national budget.