The privatised, formerly municipal, company Sofstroy will begin constructing the first new bicycle lane in Sofia along Evlogi Georgiev Boulevard on August 22, deputy mayor in charge of transport and communications Velizar Stoilov told The Sofia Echo on August 18. Sofia municipality handed the contract to Sofstroy in mid-August after the company won the public tender for the bicycle lane construction.

The bicycle lane along Evlogi Georgiev Boulevard has to be completed by October 31 2008. It will be more than five km long and will run along both sides of the Perlovska river to the intersection of Evlogi Georgiev Boulevard with Gourko Street. From there, it will proceed only on the western side of the canal. The bicycle lane will be 2m wide in some areas and in other parts, where it will be combined with a walking path, the width will be 3.2m.

The new bicycle lane is part of the six bicycle routes planned by Sofia municipality, which will connect opposite sides of the city. According to the programme for management and development of Sofia municipality 2008-2011, the lanes will have to be built by the end of 2009. However, the bicycle lane parallel to Tsar Boris III Boulevard that was planned for re-construction in 2008 will be repaired in 2009 because the repair of the boulevard itself was also postponed to July or August 2009, Stoilov said.

The public tender for the bicycle road along Tsar Boris III Boulevard will be re-announced because the first lot of participants had asked for a higher price than the amount we had planned, Stoilov said as quoted by Bulgarian-language Dir.bg on August 19.

The municipal company Sofproekt, interested in the contract, has planned the construction of bicycle lanes in the districts Mladost and Lyulin, as well as in other eastern and western neighbourhoods of Sofia. Organisations and informal associations have also expressed interest in constructing bicycle parking lots out of their own account, Dir.bg reported.

As previously reported by The Sofia Echo, Sofia municipalities budget for 2008 allocated 5.3 million leva for pavements and bicycle lanes.