Maritsa motorway in Bulgaria is now fully completed after the section between Orizovo and Dimitrovgrad was officially launched on Thursday.

Thus Maritsa has become the third fully completed motorway in Bulgaria after Trakia and Lyulin.

Maritsa has a total length of 117 km and is part of Pan-European Corridor IV.

It spans between the town of Chirpan, where it connects with Trakia motorway, and the Kapitan Andreevo border checkpoint at the frontier with Turkey.

The construction of lots 1 and 2 of the motorway was co-financed by the EU cohesion fund and the national budget through the Transport Operational Programme for the 2007-2013 programme period.

Lot 1 has a length of 31.4 kilometres and after launching it, the average daily traffic is expected to be 8500 vehicles in 2015, which is forecast to increase to 11 145 vehicles in 2020.

The motorway will alleviate the traffic from first and second-class roads between Sofia and Turkey, which until now used to be the main routes for heavy vehicles and tourists.

The official launching ceremony of lot 1 was attended by Prime Minister Boyko Borisov, President Rosen Plevneliev, Regional Minister Lilyana Pavlova, Transport Minister Ivaylo Moskovski and Lazar Lazarov, the chairperson of the Road Infrastructure Agency (API).

Lot 2 between Dimitrovgrad and Haskovo, which has a length of 34.22 kilometres, was launched earlier in May.

The construction of the motorway started back in 1979 and it was initially foreseen for completion in 2013.