The Executive Director of the Agency for exploration and maintenance of the Danube river  eng. Pavlin Tsonev signed a contract for construction and delivery of a specialised dredging vehicle.“Damen Shipyard Gorinhem”, the Netherlands won the announced public procurement by offering a price of BGN 6 100 000 excluding VAT. According to the terms of the contract, the dredge must be delivered to Ruse within 10 months.

By the end of the first half of 2020, contracts amounting for more than BGN 2.5 billion were concluded under Operational Programme on Transport and Transport Infrastructure (OPTTI).

As of June 30, 2020 the funds actually paid were BGN 1 610 million, the verified expenses were BGN 1 385 million and the certified ones were BGN 1 344 million.

In accordance with the regulations of the European Parliament and the Council of the EU, the Managing Authority of Operational Programme on “Transport and Transport Infrastructure”, 2014-2020 (OPTTI) has sent the Annual Implementation Report for 2019 to the European Commission for review and approval.  

Prior to this, the Monitoring Committee of OPTTI has approved it.

The Annual and The Final Reports for the implementation of the Operational Programme, as well as the Citizen’s Summaries, are published officially.

A contract for the supply of sediment transport pipes has been signed by the Executive Agency for the Exploration and Maintenance of the Danube River. Following a public procurement contract, a company “NBI Consortium” was selected, with a total value of BGN 745 789 excluding VAT. The
EAEMDR will use the pipelines for the transportation of silt in the course of dredging in order to improve navigability on the Bulgarian leg of the Danube River.

The first 400 m of the Zheleznitza tunnel on the Struma motorway have been dug. The construction works of the facility started in October 2019 and the site is under way at the same time both pipes and tubes. Have been dug 275 m from the southern side of the tunnel and 125 m from the north.

The modernization of the railway station of Kazichene has began today. This is the third key Sofia station, part of the project “Reconstruction of Poduyane, Iskar and Kazichene Railway Station Complexes”, which is being funded by the Operational Programme “Transport and Transport Infrastructure“ 2014-2020.

Bulgaria withdraws the application form for the construction of the Struma Motorway through the Kresna Gorge, but continues to regard the project as a priority and does not abandon it. The decision does not stop it, but accelerates the team work of all institutions involved in extending the only bottleneck along the border to Greece. Today, the Bulgarian side informed the European Commission of its decision to withdraw the application form for Lot 3.2 funding from the EU Cohesion Fund, which was submitted for approval on 9 August 2019.

It is necessary to make a conservative estimate of what can be done in the current programme period and to decide on the financing of the implementation of the activities concerned in the following period. This is what Galina Vasileva, Head of the Managing Authority of the OP Transport and Transport Infrastructure OP 2014-2020, has said at the meeting of the Monitoring Committee of the programme held on  25-26^th of November in Bansko.

The construction contract for the complete rehabilitation of the “Orizovo-Mihaylovo” railway section, part of the project “Rehabilitation of the Plovdiv-Burgas railway line, Phase 2”, co-financed by the Cohesion Fund through the Operational Programme “Transport and Transport Infrastructure” 2014-2020, has been signed today.

The entire section is 37 km long out of which the bigger part of the double-directions railway track will be constructed over a new route and will allow train speed up to 160 km/h.

A sociological survey carried out in April 2019, commissioned by the Ministry of Transport, Information Technology and Communications, provides detailed information on the travel habits of the Bulgarians. The survey is national representative and covers 2007 citizens, aged 15+ years.

At least once a year 70% of the Bulgarians travel outside their place of residence. However, relatively regularly (at least once per month) travel slightly more than half of them — about 38% of the Bulgarians.