A billion euro is to be invested in road construction and reconstruction in Bulgaria over the next six years. By 2013 as much again will be invested in Bulgaria's transport infrastructure.

This was announced on August 6 when Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev and Transport Minister Petar Moutafchiev inspected the construction of a railway connecting Plovdiv and Svilengrad.

More than 989 million euro of the transport programme subsidy will be spent on road construction and reconstruction. About 580 million euro will go for railroad infrastructure. A separate 158 million euro will be spent on improvement of water transport. The transport programme is one of the seven Bulgarian operational programmes that use EU funds. It has the biggest budget.

During Stanishev's and Moutafchiev's visit to Sadovo railway station, they inspected progress on the first phase of the reconstruction of the Plovdiv-Svilengrad railway.

The route connects Plovdiv with the Turkish and Greek borders through Svilengrad. When the upgrade of the track is completed, trains will be able to travel at up to 160 km/h, making the trip much faster. The first part of the track, Kroumovo-Purvomai, is 37km long and is currently under construction. The remaining two sections are Purvomai-Svilengrad and Svilengrad-the Turkish and Greek borders.

The entire project is worth 340 million euro, of which 152 million euro is direct financial aid from the Ispa programme, 150 million euro is a loan from the European Investment Bank, and 37 million euro is being provided by the state. As part of the first phase of the project, three bridges, nine overhead crossings, one overpass, and eight underpasses are being completed.

Next year the construction of a highway from Plovdiv to Asenovgrad, 10.5km long, will start. The project will cost eight million euro, said Veselin Georgiev, who runs the National Infrastructure Fund. The Sofia-Plovdiv first-class road will also be reconstructed in 2008.

Meanwhile, a progress report on Sofia's metro construction has emerged. On August 5, mayor Boiko Borissov said during an inspection tour that 450m of the current expansion phase of the subway were ready. Borissov said that construction of the new stations was about a year behind schedule, but a change in the technology being used to build the tunnels, as well as the employment of a new team of Taiwanese workers, should help speed up the process.

The executive director of Metropolitan municipal company, Stoyan Bratoev, said that tunnels, railways and part of the infrastructure for the section from St Nedelya church to Interpred had been completed. The station at Interpred had also been built. Construction is underway of the track leading to the Mladost residential area, where there will be three metro stations. The plan is for main construction work on this part of the extension to be completed by the end of this year and finishing works to be carried out in 2008.

Simultaneous works are going on for the Saharov Boulevard to Tsankov Boulevard section. Saharov in Mladost is expected to open this autumn, while the remaining section to Tsankov will be finished in 2008.