First sod of Lot 3-“Trakia Motorway” was turned today

"All governments invest in education, highways, thus they create prerequisites for the well being of their citizens, and their economies become competitive. For 40 years Bulgaria has been trying to build its highways, but failed to finish any of them and so far the result was 11 km per year.” Those were the words of the Minister of Regional Development and Public Works Rosen Plevneliev.

At the symbolic first sod of Lot 3-“Trakia Motorway”, the segment between Nova Zagora – Yambol, Minister Plevneliev pointed that todays highways in Bulgaria can happen only under the rules of the European solidarity.

The event was held in the presence of Prime Minister Boyko Borisov, the Chairman of the Governing Council and Director General of "Actor"-Dimitrios Kutras, diplomats from the Embassy of Greece in Bulgaria, mayors, politicians and public figures.

Minister Plevneliev stated that in the first year of this government’s mandate 120 km of highways have already been build. He stressed that presently three highways are under construction-“Trakia”, “Lyulin” and “Maritsa”. Minister Plevneliev added that they have been working hard around the clock, 6 times faster and 6 times more effectively.

Prime Minister Boyko Borisov said that they have come to an agreement with the contractor- the Greek company "Actor" in this way the project will be completed two months earlier and people will be able to travel the 34-mile segment between Nova Zagora and Yambol from 1st July 2012, instead in August 2012. He stated that unlike the draft concession project of the ruling triple coalition, which is estimated to 550 million leva at the Bulgarian taxpayers expense, now only 100 million leva from the state budget will be paid for “Trakia Motorway”, and the remaining one billion leva  will be funded by the Operational Programme "Transport".

The length of Lot 3 “Trakia Motorway” (Nova Zagora – Yambol) is 34.3 km (from km 241 +900 to km 276 +200). The value of the project is 133,973,907 million leva, including VAT. The contract with unification"T7 Consult / SNIK“ for the construction supervision of the building site was signed on 29th July 2010. Protocol 1 for the start of the construction was signed the same day. A building permit of the site has also been issued.