Turkey Withdraws from Ruse-Svilengrad Road Project in Bulgaria
Turkey decided to withdraw from a project for the construction of a key road stretch linking the Bulgarian towns of Ruse and Svilengrad, the Bulgarian regional development ministry said.
Only Bulgaria and Qatar will remain involved in the construction of the road section linking Svilengrad, on the Turkish border, with Ruse, on the Danube river, the ministry said in a statement on Monday quoting regional development minister Lilyana Pavlova.
However, Turkey has still not announced officially its decision to withdraw from the project and could revise it, she added.
The preliminary results of the feasibility studies on the project are due by the end of September.
The indicative construction cost of the road is 1.5 billion levs ($991 million/767 million euro).
The Ruse-Svilengrad road will lie on the route of a pan-European highway connecting Europe with Istanbul and the Middle East.