June 21 (SeeNews) - Bulgaria expects to complete the construction of a 9.3-kilometre long section of Hemus motorway from Yablanitsa, some 80 km east of Sofia, to Boaza road junction by the end of 2019, the regional development ministry said.
Over 80% of the section's construction has already been completed, the ministry said in a statement on Thursday, quoting regional development minister Petya Avramova.
Construction works on another 16.3-km section of Hemus motorway - between road junctions Belokopitovo and Buhovo, are currently being hampered by the ongoing expropriation procedures. However, the ministry intends to make use of recent changes to the expropriation laws in the country, and ask for preemptive implementation of the expropriation of some of the properties concerned.
Earlier this year, deputy regional development minister Nikolay Nankov said that construction works on the Yablanitsa-Boaza section are progressing ahead of schedule and the section will be most probably be completed in October.
Construction works on the Yablanitsa-Boaza section are being carried out by a consortium comprising Bulgarian construction companies Hydrostroy, Vodstroy 98 and Patstroy Burgas under a 54.9 million levs ($31.7 million/28.0 million euro) contract with the Road Infrastructure Agency (RIA).
Hemus motorway is designed to connect the capital Sofia with the Black Sea city of Varna. The planned length of the whole motorway, parts of which are already operational, is 420 km.
(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)