About 60 million euro will be invested directly in the regional economy of Vidin region in northwestern Bulgaria during that Danube Bridge 2 is being built to link the town to Calafat in Romania, weekly Stroitelstvo Gradut reproted.

The direct investments will come as building materials, fuels, equipment, machinery, manpower and their kit. The bridge itself and the adjoining its infrastructure, including works on the Romanian side, is 274 million euro, of which 226 million are on the Bulgarian side.

The deadline for the bridge between Vidin and Calafat to is October 29 2010, which is a postponement from the initial date of April 2 2010. By the end of 2008, the temporary docks will be completed for loading and unloading of the heavy bridge foundations and other elements up to 200 tons, and it is also expected that Romania would decide on who would build the infrastructure on its side of the border. Bulgaria picked Spain's Fomento de Construcciones y Contratas (FCC) to build both the bridge and the auxiliary infrastructure on its side.

The bulk of the funding would come from the European Union - 70 million euro under pre-accession aid programme Ispa and another 70 million via a loan from the European Investment Bank. A further five million euro has been awarded by French agency for development AFD, which have to be used by December 31 2009.

When completed, Danube Bridge 2 would become a part of European Transport Corridor IV between Dresden in Germany and Istanbul in Turkey. The bridge would have a length of 1971m and was designed by Fernández Casado S.L. and FCC Construction's technical service department of FCC Construction. Construction was expected to be completed within three years of the start.