The construction of a 6-km section of Struma motorway between the towns of Blagoevgrad and Krupnik in southwestern Bulgaria will be launched this week, the regional development ministry said on Thursday, reported See News.

 The construction of a section of Struma motorway, connecting the towns of Sandanski and Kresna, is progressing according to the initial schedule and is due to be completed next year, the ministry said in a statement.

Bulgaria also plans to relaunch a BGN 250 million ($150.7 million/128 million euro) tender for the construction of Zheleznitsa tunnel on Struma motorway next week, the statement reads. The initial tender procedure for the construction of Zheleznitsa tunnel was cancelled in April.

The National Company Strategic Infrastructure Projects had misinformed the candidates that they could place offers higher than the indicative value of the project, Pirin Penchev, the head of the government’s Road Infrastructure Agency, said at the time. Another reason for the cancellation was the missing technical offer of one of the participants in the tender.

Seventeen candidates had placed bids in the initial tender procedure. Struma motorway, with a total length of 173.28 km, is part of pan-European transport Corridor IV, linking Bulgaria's capital Sofia to Kulata checkpoint on the border with Greece. Its construction is divided into four sections, of which three have already been completed: Dolna Dikanya – Dupnitsa, Dupnitsa – Blagoevgrad, and Sandanski-Kulata, while the section Blagoevgrad-Sandanski, which includes the Zheleznitsa tunnel, remains to be built. 

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