AUSTRIAN company Strabag has requested 15 million euro more for completing the construction of Sofia Airport's new passenger terminal.

The company had also enquired about extending the deadline for the completion, Transport Minister Petar Mutafchiev said on February 9, adding he was about to meet the contractor to discuss the latter's new demands.

The Transport Ministry will ask for independent supervision of the completion work at Sofia Airport to make sure that its quality is up to par.

Mutafchiev's statement came a couple of days after a roof caved in at the new passenger terminal. It was to shelter the place where vehicles handling the aircraft at the new airport would be parked.

Although no injuries were registered in the accident, local media have started to  pose questions as to how the money for the project has been used, given that the building is starting to fall down before it has even been completed, and what can be expected to happen once the terminal is full of passengers and planes.

"We are concerned about what happened. The engineers and project consultants - NACO of the Netherlands - have been informed and they in turn should inform their insurance agencies. We will also look into the causes of the incident," Mutafchiev said.

His ministry is expected to choose a legal consultant to deal with the damages and the rights arising from the contractor's failure to meet its commitments.

NACO had a week, ending on February 16, to submit its analysis of everything done so far, its new proposals and Strabag's claims, as well as the consultant's position.
"We will do our best to defend our interests and have the airport finished by August 2006 - the deadline set after several extensions," Mutafchiev said.

Strabag won a tender for construction of a new terminal and related infrastructure at Sofia Airport in 2002. Originally, the deadline was early 2005. However, it was extended on several occasions after various complaints on behalf of Strabag. Officials from the ministry claim that the contractor had no reason to ask for additional financing or for an extended deadline.

The Cabinet has already started charging Strabag penalties for the delay, but it appears that the Austrian company is not prone to paying them and has threatened to appeal.

In November 2004, the Transport Ministry allowed an extension of the deadline for the construction of the new terminal by eight months, until end-August 2005, and paid an additional 4.8 million euro to Strabag. The sum was added to the initial 112.2 million euro, awarded for the building of the facility.

At the end of August 2005, however, the Transport Ministry said the Austrian company would delay the completion of the construction works until October 2005.

The new terminal, which will meet European Union requirements for servicing passengers and implementing required border controls, is designed to handle 2.5 million travellers a year and has a peak-hour rate of 2000 passengers.