Bulgaria's government has invested over BGN 17 M in an expansion of the depot of the Sofia Metro and its repair plant, Transport Minister Ivaylo Moskovski announced.

Moskovski inspected Wednesday the depot and plant of the Sofia subway in the Obelya quarter of the Bulgarian capital together with Sofia Mayor Yordanka Fandakova and municipally-owned Sofia Metropolitan company CEO Stoyan Bratoev, the press service of the Transport Ministry reported.

"Sofia's residents can be proud of this new facility because it meets all EU requirements and safety norms," Moskovski said, adding that over 300 000 people using the Sofia Metro daily can feel its benefits.

"As part of the project [including the expansion of the depot] we also managed to build a 7 km metro line, to buy 18 new trains, and to modernize the existing depot of the Sofia Metropolitan," he elaborated, adding that the expansion was necessitated by the extension of the first metro line, and the launch of the second line in 2012.

More specifically, the project included the construction of part of the second line of the Sofia Metro spanning 4.15 km with 4 metro stations – between the Obelya quarter and the Nadezhda quarter, as well as part of the first line – between the Mladost 1 quarter and the Tsarigradsko Shose Blvd spanning 2.2 km with 2 metro stations.

The Bulgarian Transport Ministry reminded that it is now working on Phase III from the extension of the Sofia Metro, which includes the construction of two sections of Line 1 – from the Tsarigradsko Shose Blvd to Sofia International Airport (already started), and from the Mladost 1 quarter to Business Park Sofia.

The Sofia Metro Phase III project was approved for funding by the European Commission at the end of 2012.