Bulgaria Starts Construction of Struma Motorway Section
Bulgaria started construction of a 15 km stretch of the Struma motorway between the town of Sandanski, in the country's southwest, and the Greek border.
The ground-breaking ceremony was attended by prime minister Boiko Borisov, ministers Lilyana Pavlova of regional development and Ivaylo Moskovski of transport, and His Excellency Thrassyvoulos Stamatopoulos, Ambassador of Greece in Sofia, state-run Bulgarian News Agency (BTA) reported on Thursday.
On March 19, Bulgaria signed a contract with Greek construction company Aktor to build the motorway for some 56 million levs ($37.4 million/28.6 million euro), Value Added Tax (VAT) excluded.
Some 80% of the money for the motorway construction is provided under the EU-funded operational programme Transport and the other 20% comes from Bulgaria's state budget.
The Struma motorway, with a total length of 173.28 km, is part of pan-European transport Corridor IV.