January 20 (SeeNews) - Bulgaria's municipally-owned Sofia subway system operator Metropoliten will seek 220 million levs ($127.5 million/112.5 million euro) under the EU's Recovery and Resilience Facility to finance the construction of a three-kilometre section of the subway network, local media reported.
The construction of the section, part of the Sofia subway's Line 3, is expected to be completed by the end of 2025, with works planned to start in March or April, business news outlet Dnevnik.bg reported earlier this week.
The project envisages the construction of three subway stations. Three local companies have been tasked with construction works on the section - Trace Group Hold [BUL:T57], GP Group and Monolit Sofia, according to Dnevnik.bg.
Last year, Sofia mayor Yordanka Fandakova said that Sofia municipality is investing over 400 million levs of its own funds in a project for expansion of the subway network. The 360 million levs pencilled in for the purpose in the EU-funded national recovery and resilience plan of Bulgaria cover only 47% of the value of the project for construction of two new subway sections with a total length of 9 km, Fandakova said at the time.
In 2021, Metropoliten launched a tender for a 530 million levs extension of Line 3 by six new stations. The 5.67-km new section will link the Tsarigradsko Shose boulevard to the Slatina district, in the eastern part of Sofia.
The Sofia subway system currently comprises four lines with 52 km of tracks and 47 stations.
(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)