Sixty-three percent of the total budget of the OP “Transport and Transport Infrastructure” 2014-2020 or EUR 1.2 billion have been agreed. This was stated by the Head of the Managing Authority of the Program, Galina Vassileva, during the eighth meeting of the OPTTI Monitoring Committee. She also said that within half a year, 15% of the program had been negotiated, which was a great advance. The value of the contracts concluded with the contractors is EUR 730 million or 39% of the OPTTI budget. The funds paid to the contractors are EUR 284 million, Vassileva added.

We approved the application forms of the two major projects for the rehabilitation of the railway sections Plovdiv - Burgas, Phase 2 and Elin Pelin - Kostenets. Both forms were sent to the European Commission for evaluation and subsequent approval, Galina Vassileva informed.

The director of "Strategic Development and Investment Projects" Directorate at National Railway Infrastructure Company, Maria Chakarova reported that the tender for the construction of signaling and telecommunication systems for the railway line Plovdiv-Burgas will be announced within a few days. After four months of appeals, we have restarted the procedure for rehabilitation of the railway line Elin Pelin - Kostenets and the deadline for submitting offers is January 2018, added Chakarova.

Regarding the projects in the road sector, Galina Vassileva said that the European Commission has approved the project for Lots 3.1, 3.3 and the tunnel "Zheleznitsa" from Struma Motorway, but a solution and full financing is to be found for the most complicated section through Kresna Gorge. On October 23, 2017, we received an EIA decision for Lot 3.2 of Struma Motorway, and after confirming the decision, it is envisaged to announce the tender procedures in March 2018 and to submit an application form within the same year, she summarized.

The project for the construction of the Sofia metro is being implemented according to the set deadlines and by the end of 2019, 12 metro stations and 12 km metrotrase will be completed. The Executive Director of Metropolitan EAD Stoyan Bratoev said that the physical progress of Phase 1 is 48% and Phase 2 is about 9%. He pointed out that a study they had recently proved that if there is no metro in the capital, 90% of the crossroads will be blocked for traffic. The metro network is 31 km long, of which 21 km have been built in the last 7 years, said Bratoev.