Mariya Andonova,
Vassilena Hristova
Kapital weekly newspaper,
Issue 28, 2008

When will the residents of the Sofia borough Nadezhda be able to cross the city underground and get to Lozenets without the traffic, or even traffic lights? If the results of the city's public procurement tender can be trusted, offers for which were to be opened the week of July 12, this will happen somewhere near 2012. By then, we will have forgotten the tardy completion of the metro leg going from TZUM to Mladost, as it will have (finally) been in use for a few years. So maybe in four years, the Sofia metro will be able to distinguish itself from its current modest state - a single line hardly eight km long and with only seven stations.

Planning and building the new route from Nadezhda to Cherni Vruh Boulevard (famous for being the second line to be planned) will cost 471 million leva. Such is what has been seen in the offers submitted by candidate construction companies. With a length of 6.4km and seven stops, it is divided into two segments - from Nadezhda [which means "hope"] to Patriarh Evtimii Boulevard, and from there to Cherni Vruh Boulevard. The final designation is expected to be clear by July 22, the date by which the construction commission is to have wrapped up its work.

Unofficial information about participants in the tender says the Turkish company Dogus won the first segment with a bid of 329 million leva, and for the second segment, the Stara Zagora-based Trace Group came out on tops with an offer approaching 142 million leva. Both companies are well-known in the roads sector. One of their most recent projects was the construction of parts of Trakiya Highway. The firms were among the candidates to complete a section of the highway after it became clear that the concession contract with Bulgarian-Portuguese consortium had fallen through.

If there are no appeals from the participants in the procedure, in the spring of 2012, the distance between Nadezhda and Lozenets should be able to be covered in about 15 minutes via the underground. The period of construction, to be specifically included in the contracts for realisation, is 45 months.

The project for the enlargement of the Sofia metro network is included in the financing of the operative programme Transport.

According to Stoyan Bratoev, executive director of the municipal firm Metropolitan, the scandals in Brussels that have led to the stopping of eurofunds like Phare, ISPA and Sapard will not negatively affect the project or fetter construction. That, however, seems doubtful when considering the tempo to which the other sections have been constructed.

For example, the section from Sveta Nedelya Square to Dragan Tsankov Boulevard, undertaken by the Japanese firm Taisei Corporation, was supposed to be completed by the end of 2007, as per the contract. In the most recent data, provided by Bratoev, the leg was not thought to be completed until autumn 2009. Representatives of the Japanese company, however, explained to the municipality in May that they would most likely not be able to complete construction before the arrival of 2010.

As for the Dragan Tsankov Boulevard-Mladost segment, one on which Bulgarian firms are working, it is expected to be ready by spring next year.

Should there be eventual delays in the future, however, the company realising the project will not be hit with a fine of five per cent of the total project cost - the case with Taipei, as specified in the contract - but with 20 per cent. Bratoev said that this change would lead to greater discipline and that future projects would not have such a great lag.

This is the second time that procedures have been held to select a construction company for the segment leading from Nadezhda to Cherni Vruh Boulevard. The procedures that were held in spring this year were cancelled due to the high costs for construction that candidates had proposed. At that time, 11 firms total - Bulgarian and foreign - submitted bids. Also at that time, the municipality said that it was willing to spend up to 400 million leva for the Nadezhda to Patriarh Evtimii Boulevard segment, and 155 million leva for the segment from there to Cherni Vruh Boulevard.

Along with trying to speed up the realisation of Sofia's second metro line, the municipality is also working to quicker proceed with the remaining sections of the underground. On June 16, Metropolitan announced a public procurement tender for planning and constructing the enlargement of the metro network from the Mladost neighbourhood to Tsarigradsko Chaussee. Bids will be accepted until August 21. This segment of the metro - with a total length of 7.2km and six stations - is to reach Sofia Airport.

The route that parallels Tsarigradsko Chaussee is to be two km long and is to have two stops. The construction of an underground parking structure along the boulevard is also foreseen. The company chosen to realise this leg will be given 39 months to complete the project. And that is only the next stepping stone - or station stop - to the eventual construction of line number four, between the Knyazhevo and Levski boroughs.