Bulgaria Opens Bids for Struma Highway Lot 4

Bulgaria's Minister of Regional Development and Public Works, Rosen Plevneliev, is attending Friday the opening of the public tender bids for Lot 4 of the Struma Highway.

The news was reported by the TV channel bTV.

Lot 4 runs between the southern town of Sandanski and Kulata on the Greek border and is 15 km-long. The investment amount is estimated at EUR 53 M, and it is financed by the EU operational program Transport.

The Struma Highway starts at the Daskalovo road junction to the west of Sofia, where it will be connected with the short Lyulin Highway, and will run to the Kulata border crossing on the Bulgarian border with Greece. Some of the sections of the 156-km road are promised to be completed by the end of the Borisov Cabinet's term in 2013. A total of 19 km have been completed so far.

Lot 2 (from Dupnitsa to Simitli, 45 km) and Lot 3 (from Simitli to Sandanski, 60 km) will be harder to build because of the rough terrain, and the Borisov Cabinet has made it clear it plans to complete Lots 1 and 4 by the end of its term in 2013, and to have made progress on the other two.

The total length of the highway is slightly over 173 km.

The Struma Highway is a priority for the Bulgarian government in 2011 because of the importance of the traffic and economic ties with Greece, and because it is a part of Pan-European Transport Corridor No. 4 (from Central Europe to Thessaloniki and Athens via Vidin and Sofia).

The highway will be the first one in Bulgaria to feature special facilities for wild animals such as bears and hares.