A consortium of two Bulgarian companies and one Italian firm has won the Transport Ministry tender for modernization of the Plovdiv-Burgas railway in Southern Bulgaria.

The consortium of Trace and SK-13 and GCF, a company from Italy, provided the lowest price of all bidders – BGN 380 M.

"We are thus saving BGN 110 M from the rehabilitation of the railway since this is the difference with the lowest prices offered during the two tenders," explained Bulgaria's Transport Minister Alexander Tsvetkov.

The first tender for modernizing the railway from Plovdiv to Burgas on the Black Sea was renounced over insistence by EU institutions because of violations.

Trace, a Bulgarian construction company, is currently constructing two sections of the Sofia Metro.

It also won tenders for maintenance of 3000 km of roads, about 15% of roads in Bulgaria, and for road repairs in Sofia. Thus, in the first nine months of 2010 Trace saw its profit increase sevenfold compared with the same period of 2010. Its sales grew by 65% reaching BGN 186 M.