Bulgaria Plans Tender for 16.5km Hemus Motorway Section

Bulgaria prepares to launch a tender for the construction of a section of Hemus Motorway in northeastern Bulgaria, Regional Development Minister Lilyana Pavlova has said.

“We are completing the preparation of the documents for the tender in order to continue the construction of the motorway from Varna in the direction of Sofia,” Pavlova told reporters in the coastal city, according to a press release issued by the government’s Road Infrastructure Agency on Monday.

The new 16.5-kilometer section will extend westward, in the direction of Targovishte city, from the motorway junction at Belokopitovo, in Shumen Region. The new section will include a major road junction and six viaducts, according to the press release.

Bulgaria’s coalition government led by centre-right GERB party sees the construction of new sections of Hemus Motorway as key to enhancing the economic development of the country’s northern regions which lag behind the southern ones in terms of road infrastructure.

The Road Infrastructure Agency called a tender for the construction of another section of Hemus Motorway last month following the cancellation of a previous tender in February.

The 9.3km section starting some 80 km northeast of Sofia will link the town of Yablanitsa with Boaza junction in the Balkan mountain range, where Varna-Veliko Tarnovo and Ruse-Pleven roads meet. The indicative value of that tender is BGN 80 M free of VAT.

The government cancelled a tender worth almost BGN 800 M for the construction of 60 kilometers of the motorway in February, including a 24km stretch from Yablanitsa to Ugarchin, citing suspected irregularities in the tender process. It emerged later that no EU funding was available for that project and Bulgaria had to iplement it with its own funds