The European Commission said on November 13 that it has approved an investment package worth around €330mn from the Cohesion Fund to build parts of the Struma motorway in western Bulgaria.
Struma motorway is part of the Pan-European Corridor IV and will have a length of approximately 150km.
The motorway is on the route Pernik – Dupnitsa – Blagoevgrad – Sandanski – Kulata crossing at the border with Greece. Sections completed so far include Dolna Dikanya-Dupnitsa (16.8 km), Dupnitsa-Blagoevgrad (37.5 km) and Sandanski-Kulata (14.7 km).
Now the EC has approved funding for two more sections, between the towns of Blagoevgrad and Krupnik and between the towns of Kresna and Sandanski.
The EU has already financed the construction of lots 1, 2 and 4 of the Struma Motorway under the 2007-2013 EU budget framework, allocating €291mn from Cohesion Policy funds.
The EC has also approved the modification of the 2014-2020 Cohesion Policy programme for transport infrastructure for Bulgaria as requested by the national authorities.
The programme, worth €1.6bn from EU funds, was modified to allow better preparation of railway projects, by ensuring efficient complementarities with the Connecting Europe Facility on the line from Plovdiv to Bourgas and by redirecting some funding for investments in smart systems for traffic management and safety, the EC said.
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