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Minister: Bulgaria to build three highways by 2013
The Regional Development Ministry plans to open international tenders in the second half of October and pick builders to complete the 360-kilometer (220-mile) Trakia highway, which will link the capital, Sofia, with the Black Sea port of Burgas, by the end of the year. Tenders for a highway linking Bulgaria with Turkey will be launched in early 2010. Another highway, aimed at easing congestion in Sofia, will be completed next year.
The new center-right government inherited an infrastructure neglected due to years of corruption, political bickering and bad management.
It now aims to streamline administration and fight graft to ensure the European Union does not block the 1.7 billion euros ($2.44 billion) it has earmarked for roads and regional development by 2013. Brussels has already frozen hundreds of millions of euros worth of aid due to concerns about Bulgarian fraud.
"Bulgaria has the label of the most corrupt country in the European Union. It has arrogantly refused to take any measures ... Until that changes there will be no EU funds," Plevneliev told Reuters.
Plevneliev said measures to improve transparency and block political meddling in public procurement would secure 900 million euros in EU aid to build about 200 kilometers (124 miles) of highway on three routes by 2013.
"Experts should be left to do their jobs, instead of being under constant political pressure to support this or that company or municipality," he said in an interview on Friday.
Political observers have welcomed the anti-graft drive but say uprooting corruption will be a major challenge for the ruling GERB party, which won 39.7 percent of votes in a July election to oust the previous Socialist administration.
Last month, the government sacked many officials accused of graft and bad management.
It also changed the management of the national roads agency to ensure better communication with the European Commission.
"I have nicknamed the ministry 'The ministry of the three highways.' They have to be constructed by the end of our mandate [n 2013]," Plevneliev said. "Without highways, there is no economy."
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