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...
A part of the money within EU's Operational Program Transport intended for the enhancement of Danube's shipping, will be used for the expansion of Bulgarian capital Sofia's first metro line.
Some of the BGN 138 M intended for the strengthening of Bulgaria's Danube coast will be used for the construction of the metro stretch between the Tsarigradsko Shose boulevard and Sofia's international airport, Ivaylo Moskovski, the country's Deputy Transport Minister, clarified Thursday.
The sum...
Bulgaria ranks 135th in the world by the quality of its road infrastructure, Economy and Energy Minister, Traicho Traikov, announced Tuesday.
Traikov took part in the conference "Competitiveness of Bulgarian Economy – Absorption of EU Funds."
The Minister further said Bulgaria ranks 90th by innovations, behind countries such as Tunisia and Indonesia, which are rated among the top 50.
Other rankings reported by the Minister are – the 140th spot by effectiveness of institutions,...
Sofia will soon have a brand-new bicycle path, connecting the "Mladost 4" district with the last metro stop in "Mladost 1," the Mayor of Sofia, Yordanka Fandakova, announced Thursday.
The 8-mk long path will be opened on May 24, 2011.
The Sofia City Hall is planning to also build, in the very near future, two more such paths – on "Gotse Delchev" boulevard, connecting South Park with the already existing path on "Tsar Boris III" boulevard and another one – on "Evlogi and Hristo...
The airport in the Bulgarian capital Sofia is going to be offered on concession, according to Deputy Transport Minister, Kamen Kichev.
The Ministry is still mulling two options – to concession the entire airport or just the construction of the new cargo terminal. The concessioner is to also repay the loan, which was taken for the building of the new terminal.
Kichev admits the preparations to offer Bulgaria's airports, railway stations, and ports have taken quite a while, but points out...
The construction of the second line of the Sofia Metro is two months ahead of schedule, and will most likely be launched in June 2012, according to eager representatives of the Bulgarian authorities.
Bulgaria Prime Minister Boyko Borisov together with Sofia Mayor Yordanka Fandakova, Finance Minister Simeon Djankov, and EU Funds Minister Tomislav Donchev inspected Monday the construction of the metro at the Lavov Most ("Lions' Bridge") station with much fanfare; the section in question is...
Bulgaria's Prime Minister Boyko Borisov has surprised the media and the public by announcing a new idea for the location of a new national stadium to replace the Vasil Levski Stadium in downtown Sofia.
According to Borisov, the latest idea for a new location is the Nadezhda ("Hope") quarter in the northern suburbs of the capital, near or on the spot of the currently existing stadium of FC Lokomotiv Sofia.
"We are now considering the options for Nadezhda, even for the Lokomotiv stadium, to...
Main boulevards in the Bulgarian capital will undergo active repair works, the Sofia Deputy Mayor for Transport, Lyubomir Hristov, said Friday.
In his words, by the end of April, pavement renewal has to be competed on the Alexander Malinov Blvd, Tsarigradsko Shose, Bulgaria Blvd and Tsar Osvoboditel Blvd.
The Sofia Municipality has provided BGN 27 M for ongoing repairs of streets and boulevards.
"Ten days ago we launched the program for implementation of the ongoing repair works of...
A leading Italian construction company CMC di Ravenna has been selected by the Bulgarian government to build Lot 1 of the Maritsa Highway leading up to the border with Turkey.
Cooperativa Muratori e Cementisti – or CMC di Ravenna – has offered the best price out of seven eligible offers. A total of 12 companies took part in the tender for the construction of Lot 1 of the Maritsa Highway but the Bulgarian government eliminated five of them for not meeting the requirements.
The price...
The Russian Metrovagonmash is the wining bidder in the public procurement tender for the delivery of trains for the Sofia metro.
The Russian plant, located in Mytishchi, near Moscow, will deliver 18 trains of three cars each. The cars are from the 81-740/741 "Rusich" series.
The information was reported in Russian media Tuesday.
The other participant in the tender has been the Spanish company CAF.
Since it first opened doors in 1998, the subway in the Bulgarian capital has used only...
Bulgaria will build a super-fast railroad highway to connect the capital Sofia with the western city of Vidin and the new Danube Bridge there.
The investment amount is estimated at EUR 2.7 B. The railway will be 222-km long; trains will travel with speeds up to 120 km per hour (or the trip between the two cities will be less than 3 hours, compared to the current 5.5 hours); the deadline is 2021.
The railroad highway is part of the European Corridor 4 connecting Central Europe with Turkey...
The Bulgarian government has started procedures for finding private operators of the cargo terminal of the southern Plovdiv Airport, and of the civilian airport Shtraklevo near the Danube city of Ruse.
The main purpose of the concession in Plovdiv is to increase the activity of the airport, to attract more air traffic and to develop competitive commercial activities regarding mostly cargo processing.
The second concession aims at restoring the activity of the Ruse Airport, at reaching...
Bulgaria's government is going to reduce substantially the fees for the transport of trucks by railway in order to encourage the use of the so called "Rolling Highway" transport.
The government press service announced that the Cabinet intends to cut in half the amounts charged for transporting trucks by rail collected by the National Company Railway Infrastructure.
The idea of the Cabinet is to stimulate the combination of the truck and railway transport of goods. The measure will refer...
Bulgaria's Cabinet is going to start procedures for finding private operators of the cargo terminal of the southern Plovdiv Airport, and of the civilian airport Shtraklevo near the Danube city of Ruse.
The concession procedures for the two airports are on the agenda of the Cabinet's meeting on Wednesday.
While there was investor interest in the cargo terminal of the airport in the southern city of Plovdiv a couple of years ago, it remains unclear if the government's motion will generate...
The European Commission is slating funds from the EU operational program Transport in the amount of EUR 250 M for the metro construction in the Bulgarian capital Sofia.
The contract was signed Tuesday between the Deputy Transport Minister, Ivaylo Moskovski and the Head of the municipal company "Metropolitan," Stoyan Bratoev.
The funds will be used for the construction of the so-called stage II which includes a segment of the second subway line – from the Obelya district to the Nadezhda...
By the end of 2013, Bulgaria will have railway lines for high-speed transport of both passengers and freight, said Milcho Lambrev, Director General of National Railway Infrastructure Company.
However, in his words, having high-speed railways for over 200 km/h would be economically unprofitable for Bulgaria.
"The territory of the country is characterized by very rugged terrain. In order to introduce railway lines for speeds above 200 km/h, we have to build many and expensive equipment,...
French oil services company Technip has been awarded a lump sum services contract for the phase 1 of a heavy residue hydrocracking complex to be built at their refinery located in the Bulgarian city of Burgas.
The contract is worth approximately EUR 70 M and has been awarded by Burgasnefteproekt EOOD (a Lukoil engineering subsidiary).
The contract covers the detailed engineering and procurement services for a 2.5 million tons/year residue hydrocracker based on Axens H-Oil process, as well...
The municipality of Bulgarian capital Sofia has reached an agreement for a EUR 25 M loan from the EBRD to boost public transportation.
This news was broken by Sofia mayor Yordanka Fandakova at Thursday's presentation of the 2010 municipal budget.
The loan will be extended in two installments at EUR 12.5 each. The first amount will be used for the payment of arrears to transport operators. The second will go for the finalization of the electronic system for charging public transport...
The long-anticipated construction of the railway line connecting the capitals of Bulgaria and Macedonia – which is also a major part of Pan-European Transport Corridor No. 8 – should start in 2012.
This has been forecast by Deputy Prime Minister of Macedonia, Vladimir Pesevski, in an interview for the Macedonian TV channel Alfa.
The report says the Macedonian government is optimistic that the realization of the project for a railway connection between Sofia and Skopje, which has been...
The southern city of Plovdiv has come up with an initiative to host a new national stadium of Bulgaria, which could be realized instead of the expensive construction of a new stadium in Sofia.
Last week Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov announced a plan to construct a new "National Stadium" for international matches to be located in the outskirts of the capital Sofia, near the Sofia International Airport. This project is said to rectify the present situation in which Sofia gets...
About 55% of the construction of the so called Danube Bridge 2, the second one to connect Bulgaria and Romania over the Danube River, have been completed.
This information emerged on Thursday as Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov inspected the construction of the long-anticipated bridge connecting Bulgaria's Vidin and Romania's Calafat.
"I am happy with what I saw, I hope the builders will complete the bridge within the deadlines to make up for the delays," Borisov said on the spot,...
Bulgaria Translation