August 29 (SeeNews) - Bulgaria has opened a tender for the construction of a 16.3 km motorway stretch, estimated at 133 million levs ($76 million/68 million euro), the country's road infrastructure agency said on Monday.
Interested parties can submit their offers by October 10, the agency said in a statement.
The stretch, between the village of Belokopitovo and the town of Targovishte, is the second out of four planned sections for the extension of Hemus motorway, which should link the capital of Sofia and the Black Sea city of Varna. It will include the construction of a major road junction and six viaducts. The works should be completed for a period of 910 days.
In July, Bulgaria opened a tender for the construction of the first 9.3 km section of the Hemus extension with an indicative value of 80 million levs. The tender attracted 11 bids.
In February, Bulgaria terminated a tender for the construction of a 60 km stretch of the highway, divided in two sections, amid suspected irregularities regarding the transparency of the selection process and the spending of state funds. The total cost of the contract was 756.8 million levs, and the regional development ministry claimed it was unable to ensure EU funding to pay for it.
The planned length of the whole Hemus motorway, part of which is operational, is 433 km.
(1 euro=1.95583 levs)