October 22 (SeeNews) - Bulgaria has started the construction of a section of Sofia ring road, over 6 kilometres in length, the government's Road Infrastructure Agency (RIA) said on Tuesday.
Construction works have been assigned to local company GBS Infrastrukturno Stroitelstvo under a 142.7 million levs ($81.3 million/73.0 million euro), contract, VAT included, , the RIA said in a statement.
Works are planned to be completed by the end on 2021.
The existing two-lane road forming part of the southeastern section of the ring road of Bulgaria's capital will be replaced by a six-lane road, with three lanes in each direction. The project also envisages the construction of three overpasses and bridges as well as reconstruction of the adjacent water supply, sewerage and gas distribution pipelines.
The successful implementation of the project will provide an upgraded road link between the Trakia and Hemus motorways in the outskirts of Sofia and will help decrease traffic congestion.
Last month, Bulgaria's government said it will allocate up to 144.6 million levs over the next four years to the construction of that section of Sofia ring road. Some 13.9 million levs of the amount have already been transferred to the regional development ministry's budget for 2019.
GBS Infrastukturno Stroitelstvo was awarded a contract for the design and construction of the six-kilometre section of Sofia ring road on June 20. The company is part of Bulgaria's Glavbolgarstroy Holding.
(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)