July 15 (BTA) - Caretaker Minister of Transport,
Information Technology and Communications Georgi Todorov
Thursday unveiled the construction works under a project for the
 modernization of the railway section between the western towns
of Elin Pelin and Varakel. The 20 km section is part of the Elin
 Pelin-Kostenets railway line and its modernization will include
 the construction of a 6.7 km twin-tube tunnel, the longest ever
 built in Bulgaria and the Balkans.

The activities under the project also include the modernization
of over 51 km of railways, so as to allow passenger trains to
travel at 160 km/h and freight trains, at 120 km/h, and five
stations and stops along the route. A total of 498 million leva
will be invested in the project under two operational
programmes: Transport and Transport Infrastructure, and
Transport Connectivity.

The construction works will continue for four years, with the
Cen-Duy Railway Elin Pelin company (comprising Turkey's Cengiz
and Duygu companies) as the contractor.
 
National Railway Infrastructure Company Director General
Krasimir Papukchiyski commented that the 20 km of the
modernization project require 5,000 experts on tunnels who will
work in two shifts and even round the clock under a new Austrian
 method. This railway line will be extended with a connection to
 the Republic of North Macedonia, he added.

Macedonian Railways Infrastructure Director General Hari
Lokvenec, who also attended Thursday's ceremony, said that this
project will be beneficial not only for Bulgaria but also for
all Balkan countries using Pan-European Transport Corridor VIII.
  He recalled that he was in Sofia last week for the Sixth
Summit of the Three Seas Initiative, where one of the topics
raised was connecting the Black Sea with the Adriatic Sea.
Corridor VIII is the fastest and cheapest way to  achieve this,
he noted. In his words, it can boost the economic ties between
North Macedonia and Bulgaria, so that bilateral trade could
exceed 1 billion euro, and can increase the mobility of citizens
 and peoples in the Balkans.
    
NV/DS




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