Minister of Transport, Information Technologies and Communications Ivailo Moskovski attended today the official signing of the contract with the selected contractor for the construction of Lot 4 of the Strouma Motorway.

With this contract the total amount of contracted funds for road projects goes up to 1.775 billion BGN, Minister Ivailo Moskovski said. "We hope to keep momentum and all commitments of the contractor be fulfilled in time," he added. As he put it, for some years now the results of the implementation of Operational Programme (OP) Transport have been very good. As at present contracted funds exceed 3.377 billion BGN or about 85% of the programme budget. The funds paid to beneficiaries keep the upward trend and already exceed 986 million BGN or about 25%, Ivailo Moskovski added.

Lot 4 of the Strouma Motorway (Sandanski - Koulata) has a length of 15 km. AKTOR AD was named as contractor in a bidding procedure, as the company offered to implement the project for the price of 55,980,000 BGN before VAT. The contract has been signed for a term of 23 months. The groundbreaking ceremony of the project is expected to be performed in the region of the town of Sandanski on 5 April.

Lot 4 runs through the territories of the municipalities of Sandanski and Petrich. The facility will include 5 overpasses (3 of which agricultural), 5 subways (3 agricultural and 2 railway undergrounds at the Sofia-Koulata railway line), 7 bridges (5 for the Strouma Motorway and 2 at the Sofia-Koulata railway line). Silencing barriers will be installed between the motorway and the population centres. Facilities aimed at protection of the biodiversity in the region are also to be constructed. Shifting of the Sofia-Koulata railway line at the General Toshevo-Koulata stretch is also envisaged within the project.

A contract on construction supervision was also signed with the selected contractor, PUTINVESTENGINEERING AD. It is of the value of 297,016 BGN before VAT.

The project on the construction of LOT 4 of the Strouma Motorway will be co-financed under the EU Cohesion Fund through OP Transport 2007- 2013, Priority Axis 2 "Development of road infrastructure along the major national and Pan-European transport axes".

Attending the official ceremony at the Road Infrastructure Agency were Minister of Regional Development and Public Works Lilyana Pavlova, the beneficiary's management, representatives of the Managing Authority of OP Transport, media representatives, etc.