SOFIA (Bulgaria), August 17 (SeeNews) – Bulgarian state-owned railways operator BDZ intends to launch a tender with an indicative value of 350 million levs ($209.8 million/178.9 million euro) for the delivery of rolling stock in the autumn, transport minister Ivaylo Moskovski said on Thursday.
The company intends to use the annual capital transfer from the central budget, amounting to 35 million levs, to finance the project, Ivaylo Moskovski said during an interview for private broadcaster BTV.
Currently, the company’s debt amounts to 393 million levs, according to Moskovski.
In June, Moskovski said Bulgaria will provide a 224 million levs interest-free loan to BDZ to allow the company to reduce its debt.
The funding will come from the proceeds of a concession contract for Sofia International Airport, Moskovski said at the time. The tender for awarding a 35-year concession contract for the operation of Sofia International Airport, which was cancelled in April, is expected to be relaunched by September.
(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)