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...
Bulgarian authorities will launch 15 tenders for repairs in its notorious road network before the end of November.
The bids will concern second- and third-degree roads accross the country and are part of the second stage of the infrastructure campaign of the government that is to be executed using BGN 240 M under the Regional Development Operational Programme.
The terms of the contract will be 4-10 months, while repairs are planned to start April.
The head of the Road Infrastructure...
The Bulgarian government will grant BGN 16 M from the 2011 budget for the construction of a small section of the traditionally neglected Hemus Highway, the only highway project for Northern Bulgaria.
The new 10-km section of Hemus will go from the city of Shumen in western direction toward Sofia to the village of Belokopitovo, Bulgarian Finance Minister Simeon Djankov announced in the northeastern city of Shumen on Saturday.
Djankov revealed that the Regional Development Ministry has...
Bulgaria will begin the tenders for two more lots of the southwestern highway Struma by December at the latest, according to Regional Development Minister Plevneliev.
Plevneliev said the government is ready to launch the tenders for the lots from the existing section near Sofia to the town of Dupnitsa, and from the Kulata border crossing to Sandanski.
One of the middle sections between Dupnitsa and Blagoevgrad, however, will be extremely hard to build because of the rough terrain, and the...
Bulgaria will have two new railroad stations to connect the cities of Pernik and Plovdiv with the Sofia subway, the CEO of the "Metropolitan" company, Stoyan Bratoev, announced Friday.
Stoyanov reported the news on the heels of statements of the Mayor of Sofia, Yordanka Fandakova, who during the discussion titled "Sofia 2020" said that in addition to the three segments of the capital subway, work would be done in the next ten years on their expansion.
One of the stations will be located...
Bulgaria's Lyulin highway is 82% ready, the Prime Minister Boyko Borisov and the Minister on Regional Development, Rosen Plevneliev, have announced.
The two have made an official check on the construction of Lyulin highway on Sunday and announced the launching of new lanes at the Daskalovo road junction, which aim at easing the traffic.
"Half of Lyulin highway was made for six months, while one third of it was made for three years," Borisov said.
In September, the Bulgarian Road...
Bulgarian Prime Minister, Boyko Borisov, officially opened Saturday a 31-km section of the Maritsa Highway between the towns of Harmanly and Lyubimets.
The new road junction near Novo Selo, providing direct connection with the highway to Greece, also opened Saturday.
The cost of construction works is estimated at BNG 36 M and it is financed by the State budget.
The contractors are "Patni Stroeshi" (Road Construction), Plovdiv and "Moststroy" (Bridge Construction), part of the "Holding...
Bulgarian Energy Minister Traicho Traikov has met with his Turkish counterpart, Taner Yildiz, during the second edition of the two-day "Black Sea Energy and Economy Forum" in Istanbul.
The Black Sea forum is organized by the US Atlantic Council. It is an initiative to bring together business leaders and policy-makers to discuss strategies regarding Eurasia, Black Sea, the Caspian and Central Asia.
"My Turkish counterpart and I discussed the main topics of our energy cooperation. One of...
Serbia is about ready to start the construction of the South Stream gas transit pipeline, announced the head of the Srbijagas company Dusan Bajatovic.
Bajatovic told the Bulgarian National Radio Saturday that Serbia will be the first country in Europe to start building South Stream.
He predicted that the Russian-sponsored pipeline will ready in 2015, while also pointing out there were no problems at present on part of Russia's Gazprom or on part of Bulgaria about the route of the...
The Bulgarian and Greek ministers in charge of energy are meeting in Thessaloniki Wednesday in order to coordinate the project for connecting the natural gas pipeline networks of the two countries.
The Bulgarian Minister of Economy, Energy, and Tourism Traicho Traikov together with his deputy in charge of energy Mariy Kosev are meeting with Greece's Minister for the Environment, Energy and Climate Change Tina Birbili, the press service of the Economy Ministry announced.
The major goal of...
The administration of the western Bulgarian city of Pernik has renewed its initiative for a connection to subway of the Bulgarian capital Sofia.
On Monday, the Deputy District Governor of Pernik, Radoslav Yordanov, announced that the local authorities have renewed their talks with the central government for the building of a new train station that will provide a connection between the Pernik-Sofia rail line and the Sofia subway.
Monday's talks were held with Deputy Transport Minister...
Bulgaria's Prime Minister Boyko Borisov formally launched the construction of the last section of the Trakiya Highway, the first highway to run from Sofia to the Black Sea coast.
"There are 7 highway projects in Bulgaria. We will built three highways by the end of our first term (2013 – editor's note), and four highways in our next term," declared Borisov near Yambol at the groundbreaking ceremony of Lot 4, Trakiya's last section linking the city of Yambol and the town of Karnobat.
The...
Bulgaria's prime minister will launch the construction works of the last section of Trakiya highway, linking the city of Yambol and the town of Karnobat, with a groundbreaking ceremony on Friday.
The Bulgarian Road Infrastructure picked "Holding Roads" as winner in the tender for building of the 49km section of Trakiya Highway, also known as Lot 4.
The offer of the Bulgarian company is BGN 174,705,600 M, VAT excluded.
Bulgaria's tie-in "Unified Highway Trace" won the tender for the...
The main part of the construction of the second Danube bridge between Bulgaria and Romania will be completed by the end of 2011, the Bulgarian Minister of EU Funds has announced.
Minister Tomislav Donchev visited the construction site of the bridge in the Bulgarian city of Vidin on Thursday where he stated that only finishing things will be left for the beginning of 2012.
The 2km Danube bridge, which is a key element of a European transport corridor connecting the German city of Dresden...
Bulgaria's PM Boyko Borisov and the Minister for Regional Development, Rosen Plevneliev, will make the first groundbreaking of Lot 3 of the Trakiya Highway on Monday.
The whole length of Lot 3, connecting the Bulgarian town of Nova Zagora and the city of Yambol, is 34,3 km. It will include two lanes in each direction.
The executing company is the Greek “Aktor”, which has proposed BGN 133 973 907 for the construction. "Aktor" has also stated that they will not use subcontractors and...
The second bridge over the Danube between Romania and Bulgaria, now constructed near Vidin, will make Bulgaria more attractive for Austrian and German investments, said DG Regional Development director Dirk Ahner.
Sunday Ahner inspected the ongoing construction of Danube Bridge 2 together with Bulgarian PM Boyko Borisov, who had the chance to show to the European Commission representative other road projects in the region of northwestern Bulgaria.
"Our ambition is to connect Vidin to the...
Bulgaria Translation