SOFIA (Bulgaria), October 9 (SeeNews) – Bulgaria’s competition regulator said on Monday local company Terminali has filed for a regulatory approval to operate the intermodal terminal in the city of Plovdiv under a concession contract it was granted by the government earlier this year.
The contract is expected to affect Bulgaria’s intermodal transport services market, as well as the country’s rail and road transport markets, according to a notice published on the website of the Commission for Protection of Competition.
In August, the government said it granted Terminali a 27-year concession contract for the operation of the intermodal terminal in the city in southern Bulgaria lying on the route linking the markets of western and central Europe with Turkey and the Middle East.
Under the contract, Terminali must invest at least 15.1 million levs ($9.0 million/7.7 million euro) in the intermodal terminal, 2.2 million levs of which during the first two years, the government said at the time.
The construction of the intermodal terminal cost 13.94 million levs and took about two and a half years to complete, according to data published on the website of Trace Group Hold - the Bulgarian company which built the facility. The project was financed from EU funds and the Bulgarian government budget.
Plovdiv-registered Terminali is owned by PIMK Holding Group, which is majority owner of local transport and logistics company PIMK.
(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)