Bulgaria’s Minister of Transport to open modernisation of ra

[Administrator]

Bulgaria’s Minister of Transport to open modernisation of railway section (ROUNDUP)

4 February 2014 | 02:00 | FOCUS News Agency

Danail Papazov, Minister of Transport, Information Technology and Communications, officially opened on Monday the modernisation of the Plovdiv-Stamboliyski railway section.
The event was held in Bulgaria’s second biggest city of Plovdiv.
The ceremony was to be attended by Michael Angerer, Commercial Counsellor at the Austrian Embassy in Bulgaria, National Railway Infrastructure Company (NRIC) General Director, Milcho Lambrev, Mayor of Plovdiv Ivan Totev, MPs and other officials.
The Stamboliyski-Plovdiv modernisation is a part of the Modernisation of the Septemvri-Plovdiv railroad – part of the Trans-European Rail network project and is realised with co-financing from the Cohesion Fund, via OP Transport 2007-2013 and is estimated at BGN 67 million (VAT included).

Bulgarian State Railways (BDZ) will purchase new carriages worth BGN 150 million. Danail Papazov, Minister of Transport, Information Technology and Communications, announced the news, Radio FOCUS – Plovdiv reported.
He remarked the carriages would not be bought before the BDZ’s debt was re-negotiated with creditors.
The Bulgarian government will hold a meeting on February 6 in Vienna in which debt rescheduling will be discussed. In Mr Papazov’s words, the debt could be repaid for a period of 10 years.
The Bulgarian ministry hopes there will be a capital transfer of BGN 30 million immediately after the debt rescheduling [is negotiated]. This will be repeated for the next several years and only after that a public procurement for the purchase of new carriages will be announced.
”We are working on a joint position of the Bulgarian state institutions and businesses in order to defend the interests of international road carriers,” Mr Papazov said speaking before journalists in a comment on the permits for road carriers which tend to cause tension at the Bulgarian-Turkish border.
Mr Papazov said Bulgaria had done a lot and had been supported by the sector organisations.
In his words, there will be a meeting Friday between the Turkish Ambassador and representatives of the Transport Ministry yet if a bilateral protocol is not signed, a solition to the problems will not be found.
Mr Papazov insisted there was no way in which Bulgaria would send Turkey all the required permits and meanwhile none of the Bulgarian demands would be complied with.

source: Focus