site.btaTransport Minister Inspects Construction of First Railway Tunnel that Bulgaria Builds in 50 Years
Transport Minister Hristo Aleksiev Friday inspected the construction of the first railway tunnel that is being built in Bulgaria in 50 years. The 1 km tunnel is on the Elin Pelin - Kostenets railway and is being built by the Turkish company Cenduy.
The project is worth BGN 498.8 million pre-VAT.
Turkish Ambassador Aylin Sekizkok was also there to check the progress of construction. She said that the Turkish contractor maintains the highest standards when it implements infrastructure projects in Turkiye and will do its best to achieve the same standards in Bulgaria.
Aleksiev said that work on the other two railway projects, of 6.7 km each, also continues.
He thanked the contractor, the contracting authority, the National Railway Infrastructure Company "and all 200 people who worked round-the-clock to build the tunnel". It has taken one-and-a-half years to drill the tunnel.
The Elin Pelin-Kostenets section where the tunnel is being built, is part of the Sofia-Plovdiv railway line on the core conventional railway TEN-T network in the country. It is placed fully on the EU core corridor Orient/East-Med. The railway line between Sofia and Plovdiv connects the two largest cities in Bulgaria. Design speed on the majority of the line varies between 120 and 130 km/h.
The tunnel is part of the project for modernization of the mainline between Sofia and Burgas. The funding is provided by the EU-backed Operational Programme Transport and Transport Infrastructure. The project includes a double railway tunnel with a length of almost 7 km, which has never been seen in Bulgaria before. Dozens of other facilities will also be built, including two tunnels with two pipes each with a total length of 1.5 km, overpasses and underpasses, eight bridges, signalling and telecommunication systems, a new station in Elin Pelin and another one at Pobit Kamak, according to Transport Ministry information.
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