[size=85:29j7rgva]Sofia echo 27 April 2010

Offers for Yambol-Nova Zagora highway stretch to be opened on April 27

Bulgaria's Regional Development Ministry was due to open offers to build Trakiya Highway stretch between Yambol and Nova Zagora on April 27, Bulgarian National Television reported.

A total of 47 bought tender papers and 11 eleven bids were submitted by consortia, Dnevnik daily said.

According to BNT, the stretch would be covered by asphalt used for runways at airports, because it was of "
superior quality"
and more "
durable in poor weather and heavy traffic"
.

Earlier in April, the consortium Magistrali Trace, led by one of Bulgaria's largest road-building firms, Trace Group, was chosen to build section from Stara Zagora to Nova Zagora, winning the tender with the lowest bidding price of 137.9 million leva for the 32km stretch of highway.

The price offered by Magistrali Trace was about a 100 million leva less than that offered by Greek group Terna, which said it would appeal the result in court. If the decision is allowed to stand, each km of the motorway would cost about 2.2 million euro. By comparison, Trace built the section from Orizovo to Stara Zagora in 2007 for 2.4 million euro a km.

Public tenders for the rehabilitation of three sections along the Plovdiv-Bourgas railway line, which would cost a total of 187 million euro and were to be funded under European Union's operational programme Transport were also scheduled to begin on April 27.