Over BGN 640 million are being invested in road infrastructure in the Sofia region

The construction of a section of the Sofia-Kalotina highway may start in May

BGN 647 million are the funds from the state budget, the European funds and the Connecting Europe Facility, which are invested in the construction and repair of roads in the Sofia region. This was announced today in Slivnitsa by the Deputy Minister of Regional Development and Public Works Nikolay Nankov. In the city, he participated in a discussion on regional development.

The main priority in 2019 will be the Kalotina-Slivnitsa highway, because only this section of the pan-European corridor from London to Istanbul does not have highway dimensions. There were complaints about the procedure for the selection of construction supervision for the section between Dragoman and Slivnitsa with a length of 16.9 km, which were withdrawn. Its construction is expected to start in May and be completed in about two years. The value of the construction works on the section is BGN 140 million, where BGN 40 million are under the Connecting Europe Facility, said Deputy Minister Nankov.

A contractor has been selected for the other section of the highway – from Kalotina to Dragoman. The construction supervision procedure is expected to be completed and, if there are no complaints, construction could start in June.

BGN 140 million of the funds for road infrastructure are allocated for the repair of bridges, viaducts and tunnels on the Hemus and Thracia highways on the territory of the district. They have not been repaired for more than 30 years. The facilities are being rehabilitated in stages. By the beginning of the summer season, the repair of the viaducts on the 13th, 15th and 20th km of the Thracia Highway in the direction toward Plovdiv will be completed. After September 15, the lanes of the facilities in the direction of Sofia will be rehabilitated.

The repair of the tube in the direction of Sofia of the Vitinya tunnel on the Hemus Highway is expected to be completed this year. In May, it is planned to complete the rehabilitation of the road through Petrohan, and a section within the town of Kostinbrod will also be repaired. The rehabilitation of the road between Slivnitsa and Breznik, which provides a connection between the Sofia region and Pernik, is about to start.

Nikolay Nankov stressed that with the introduction of the toll system for heavy vehicles on August 16, 2019, fairness will be restored in the road sector through the principle “who destroys more, pays more”. Currently, only BGN 100 million out of a total of BGN 350 million in annual vignette revenues come from trucks. The revenues are expected to be over BGN 1 billion per year, which will allow more investments in the completion and maintenance of road infrastructure.

The district is not only the largest in number of municipalities, but also with the longest and most depreciated water supply network, Deputy Minister Nankov said. He commented that the accession of the municipality of Botevgrad to the separate territory of the Water and Sewerage Association will enable the district to apply for European funding.

The project of the Ministry of Health under the Operational Programme “Regions in Growth”, which will renew all emergency medical centres and their branches in the area, is important, Nikolay Nankov said.

There are 61 buildings for which targeted financing agreements have been concluded with the Bulgarian Development Bank under the Energy Efficiency of Multi-Family Residential Buildings National Programme  in Sofia District. 54 of them have already been renovated, the rest are under construction.