Brussels Gives Bulgaria EUR 42.5 Million for Sofia Tech Park
(Sofia, Jan 11) - The European Commission has allocated a grant of EUR 42.5 million (BGN 83.1 million) for the construction of the Sofia Tech Park. The contract was signed at the Council of Ministers by Sofia Tech Park CEO Elitsa Panayotova and Chief Director of the European Funds for Competitiveness Kiril Geratliev. The event was also attended by Minister of Economy Delian Dobrev.
The total cost of the project is EUR 50...
Shukri Hussein was only 23 when he first bought some land, with a friend, to start a farm at Praventsi, a village close to Novi Pazar, in north-east Bulgaria. Ten years later the biology graduate heads a 110-hectare organic farm with a workforce of 35.
He was pleased with what he had achieved and had no intention of letting anyone spoil his dream. At the beginning of January he joined thousands of others to protest against plans to explore the huge shale-gas reserves in his region. Their...
“The opportunities OP Environment provides in the previous and the new programme periods establish prerequisites for a huge volume of work on designing and construction of ecological infrastructure as well as possibilities for the state to tackle challenges,“ said Ivelina Vasileva, Bulgarian Minister of Environment and Water, speaking at an annual conference themed “Strategic infrastructure and investments – Bulgaria and the Western Balkans“, FOCUS News Agency reported.
“In the...
Bulgaria's Cabinet is going to invest BGN 30 M in the reconstruction of the military airport near the Black Sea resort of Balchik in order to transform it into a civilian airport.
According to the transcript of the Bulgarian government's meeting on Wednesday, which was released Friday, Prime Minister Boyko Borisov ordered the Finance Ministry to allocated BGN 30 M for the reconstruction of the Balchik Airport for civilian purposes.
Borisov's rationale is that the reconstruction will be...
Several of the so called "high-speed roads" will be added to the list of highways under construction as priority infrastructure projects of the Bulgarian government, according to Road Infrastructure Agency.
The Board Chair of the Road Agency Sergey Mihalev met with representatives of the Bulgarian Branch Chamber "Roads", an association of the businesses active in the field of road infrastructure.
Mihalev has indicated that the highways and the high-speed roads are the government's major...
The bids, which were submitted for a section of the future Struma Highway, connecting Sofia to the border with Greece, will be opened on Thursday, the road infrastructure agency announced.
A record number of bidders – 19 – applied with offers to build Lot 1 of the Struma Highway – including companies from Bulgaria, Italy, Spain, Turkey, Germany, and Greece.
Regional Development Minister Rosen Plevneliev told journalists a month ago that the builder of Lot 1 will be selected by...
Bulgaria's Parliament has approved at second reading the founding of a State Company "Strategic Infrastructure Projects", a mega-structure to be in charge of the construction of three largely neglected highway projects.
The new body created with adopted amendments to the Roads Act will seek to accelerate the construction of "strategic infrastructure projects", namely the Struma Highway (running from Sofia to the border with Greece; expected completion date - 2014), the Hemus Highway (running...
Five railway lines, all of them going through Sofia, have been declared to be of "national significance" by the Bulgarian government.
Three of the five railway lines in question are part of the so called Pan-European Transport Corridor No. 4 (from Central Europe to Greece and Turkey via Vidin and Sofia); namely, Sofia-Vidin (the port on the Danube in Northwestern Bulgaria), Sofia-Pernik-Radomir in Western Bulgaria and Radomir-Kulata (on the border with Greece).
The other two priority...
Bulgaria's Cabinet has voted to turn the defunct military airport near the Black Sea town of Balchik into an active civilian airport serving the nearby sea resorts.
The Borisov government decided Wednesday to transfer the ownership of the Balchik Airport from the Defense Ministry to the Transport Ministry, acting in accordance that Prime Minister Boyko Borisov made in a nearby town, Kavarna, in early June 2011.
The Balchik Airport is located very close to the top resorts on Bulgaria's...
The European Commission will allow a 2-year extension of the construction of the bridge across the Danube set to connect Bulgaria's Vidin and Romania's Calafat.
The so-called Danube Bridge 2, financed by EU's Instrument for Structural Policies for Pre-Accession (ISPA), was set to be completed by October 2010, but has been delayed due to technical...
Bulgaria's Prime Minister, Boyko Borisov and Economy and Energy Minister, Traicho Traikov, are opening Saturday the first stage of the building of a new electric power substation on the Black Sea coast.
The "Helios" substation is being built at the largest Bulgarian summer resort – "Sunny Beach."
The new facility is owned by the National Electric Company, NEK, and its CEO, Mihail Andonov, will also take part in the ceremony.
The construction is done under a public procurement order....
The subway tunnel with the largest cross section in Europe has been formally completed in the Bulgarian capital as part of the construction of the second line of the Sofia Metro.
The tunnel at Metro Station 8 of the Line II of the Sofia Metro has a cross section of 258 square meters, and is 108 meters long, 18 high, and 22 meters wide.
Metro Station 8 is the spot where the second line of the Sofia Metro will cross and inter-connect with the existing first line at its Serdica Station near...
The authorities in the Bulgarian capital Sofia are still mulling the route and type of the third line of the Sofia Metro, while the first two lines are still under construction.
Four different options for the third line of the Sofia Metro will be presented on Monday by the Czech firm Metroproekt Prague, a consultant to the Sofia Municipality, the Monitor daily reported Saturday.
The third line of the Sofia Metro is supposed to run from the southwest to the northeast of the city via the...
Bulgaria's government is certain to set up a state-owned mega-company to be in charge of large-scale infrastructure projects, a somewhat controversial brainchild of Regional Development Minister Rosen Plevneliev.
The new infrastructure company will be called State Company "Strategic Infrastructure Projects". It is to be established as on Thursday, the Bulgarian Parliament adopted amendments to the Road Traffic Act, which include provisions for its setting up.
The mega-structure will be...
More than 3 100 km of Bulgarian roads, most of which have not been touched in 30-40 years, will be repaired under 76 projects of the Road Agency, Regional Development Minister Rosen Plevneliev announced.
Plevneliev, who is the Bulgarian official with the highest public support, spoke Monday on the rehabilitation of the first-, second-, and third-class roads in Bulgaria.
In his words, 35% of the roads in Bulgaria are in a bad condition, 25% - in an "average condition", and 40% are in a...
The future Struma Highway connecting Sofia to the border with Greece will be the first one in Bulgaria to feature special facilities for wild animals such as bears and hares.
Regional Development Minister Rosen Plevneliev told journalists Wednesday that Bulgaria will take after developed Western European countries such as the Netherlands in building highway facilities that protect wild animals.
He spoke at the Road Agency where he opened the bids in the tender for the construction of Lot...
A whole array of senior government officials have given the start of the rehabilitation of the road between the Northern Bulgarian cities Pleven and Lovech, its first repairs in 26 years.
The road infrastructure project was opened by Deputy PM and Finance Minister Simeon Djankov, a native of Lovech, Regional Development Minister Rosen Plevneliev, and Parliament Chair Tsetska Tsacheva, who is herself a native of Pleven, among other officials.
"I will not tire of repeating that Northern...
Serbia is hurrying to build a highway to the Bulgarian border before the completion of the second Bulgarian bridge on the Danube, according to Serbian Transport Minister Milutin Mrkonjic.
In 2010-2011, Bulgaria and Serbia have stressed the need to complete the construction of the Sofia-Nis Highway, with Bulgaria taking steps to construct the 70-km section from Sofia to Kalotina on the Serbian border. The route is part of the so called Pan-European Transport Corridor No. 10 from Istanbul to...
Bulgaria will launch exploratory work in the Black Sea to set the route of the future South Stream gas pipeline, announced Foreign Minister Nikolay Mladenov after a meeting in Moscow with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov.
"Naturally, we discussed major strategic projects like South Stream", Mladenov declared, adding that he had filed a document to the Bulgarian Council of Ministers permitting the start of exploration activities in Bulgaria's Black Sea region.
The South Stream gas...
The Bulgarian State Railways BDZ will order the construction of 30 sleeping cars to Turkey's state owned manufacturer Tuvasas after BDZ lost a court battle trying to cancel the order.
The CEO of the debt-ridden Bulgarian state railways Pencho Popov and the technical director of the company Georgi Panchev visited the production facilities of Tuvasas in Turkey's Adapazari.
During their meeting with the management of the Turkish state railways plant, the order for the 30 sleeping cars has...
Bulgaria will continue building and finishing highways, with Trakiya to be ready in 2012 and Maritsa in 2013, promised Minister of Infrastructure Rosen Plevneliev.
Sunday Plevneliev, together with other high ranking officials will be present at the official launch of the Lyulin Highway, which will connect the Sofia ringroad to the E-79 international road to Greece.
The Infrastructure Minister commented that the construction of the Trakiya Highway, set to connect Sofia to Burgas on the...
Bulgarian PM Boyko Borisov officially launched Sunday afternoon the newly-finished Lyulin Highway linking capital Sofia to the E-79 international road to Greece.
Present at the ceremony was also Bulgarian Minister of Infrastructure Rosen Plevneliev and EC DG Regional Development director Dirk Ahner, who said he was "greatly optimistic" about the developments he is witnessing in Bulgaria.
The 19-km highway connects the western arc of the Sofia beltway to the E-79, bypassing the Lyulin...
Bulgaria and Turkey are planning the launch of a bullet train between Sofia and Edirne, according to Suleyman Karaman, Director General and Chairman of the Board of the Turkish State Railways.
Karaman told the Bulgarian National Radio, BNR, transport ministers of the two countries recently held talks on the project, saying Turkey is ready with the project and is waiting for the Bulgarian side.
"Bulgarians are applying effort according to their possibilities. We insist on the realization...
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