Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov estimated that BGN 5 B will be needed for the completion of two of the country’s main motorways – Hemus and Struma as well as section of the I-1 (E-79 European route) in the country’s northwest.

Borisov said this on Tuesday at the official opening ceremony of the by-pass around the town of Montana.

The Bulgarian prime minister expressed delight that the northern part of the country has started to benefit from improvements to the road infrastructure as until now the efforts had largely concentrated on southern Bulgaria.

The by-pass has a total length of 12.452 kilometres and is part of the E-79 European route, which in Bulgaria runs between the Danube port of Vidin and the border checkpoint of Kulata on the country's frontier with Greece.

The construction of the bypass was co-funded by EU funds and the government budget through the Transport Operational Programme. The total cost of construction exceeded BGN 46.5 М.

Regional Minister Lilyana Pavlova, Transport Minister Ivaylo Moskovski, Head of the Road Infrastructure Agency (API) Lazar Lazarov and mayor of Montana Zlatko Zhivkov also attended the opening ceremony.

Pavlova noted that the funds under the Transport Operational Programme for the 2007-2013 programme period, which amounted to BGN 1.8 B, have been absorbed at 100 %.

In this way Bulgaria will not lose a single euro from the EU funds allocated to road infrastructure.

In the previous programme period, a total of 300 kilometres of motorways were built together with the by-passes of Montana, Vratsa, Gabrovo, the western arc of Sofia ring road, the section Kardzhali-Podkova.

Pavlova assured that investments in northwestern Bulgaria, which is the country’s poorest region, will continue next year.

Among the priorities will be renovation of the Petrohan pass, completion of the by-pass around the town of Berkovitsa, rehabilitation of the Montana-Dobri dol-Lom road.

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