Bulgaria Thrace Road Tender Launched

Bulgaria's Regional Development Minister, Rosen Plevneliev, formally launched Thursday the tender for selecting a company to complete the "Trakiya", or Thrace Highway.

The tender is for Lot 2 of the road between the city of Stara Zagora and the town of Nova Zagora. The Trakiya Highway is the most advanced highway project in Bulgaria and is supposed to connect the capital Sofia with the Black Sea city of Burgas, Novinite report.

Minister Plevneliev has announced that at least 9 or 10 “serious” Bulgarian firms and consortia are expected to be among the bidders. French, Spanish, and Greek companies have also expressed interest.

The bidding companies are required to have had an income of no less than 200 million leva (102 million euro) over the last three years, to have build at least 35 km of highways in the last five years, and to provide funding of 20 million on their own.

“I sincerely hope that this and the other two highways are going to become a symbol of European constitution in Bulgaria because the Bulgarian companies are also European companies,” Plevneliev declared.

The GERB government has promised the completion of the Trakiya, Maritza, and Lyulin Highways by the end of its term in 2013, and tangible progress on the Struma and Black Sea Highways. A total of nine tenders for nine lots from the various highway projects are to be held over the next four years.