After a 2-year blockage due to appeals, the project for the tunnel under Shipka is set to begin next year and, according to the schedule, it could be completed by 2030. This was announced on Thursday in parliament during a hearing with the Minister of Regional Development, Violeta Koritarova, as cited by "24 Chasa."
Three and a half years—that's how long the construction of the 130-year-anticipated tunnel is expected to take. However, it is not yet clear when the work will start, as new amendments to the parcel plans are needed to determine the locations for the portals of the facility, Koritarova explained to the deputies. Despite the changes and expropriations, she was adamant that the project would not become more expensive. The issue concerns an area of 8 to 10 decares. The contract has already been signed and is valued at 358 million BGN. It was signed in 2022, with the project’s funding secured—part of the funds will come from the state budget and are planned in the capital program of API (Road Infrastructure Agency), and the other part will be from the "Transport Connectivity" program.
"If we cancel this contract and start the process again to sign a new one, which would involve drafting a parcel plan just for these 8-10 decares needed for the construction of the facility," the minister pointed out. She reminded that the process of selecting a contractor began in 2019, and the final signing of the contract was in 2022. "That’s why we discussed that it would be impractical to waste more valuable time choosing a new contractor again," Koritarova stated.
The design of the facility began after nearly a three-year procedure under the Public Procurement Law and went through a court appeal. "Consortium PSVT" was chosen as the contractor. The contract is for engineering, meaning the contractor must both design and build.
The actual work began after the last obstacle to construction was removed by the court in April. The Supreme Administrative Court (SAC) finally rejected the management plan for "Bulgarka" Park.
As previously reported by "Eko Novini," to prevent the construction of the tunnel under Shipka and the Gabrovo bypass ring road, the territories through which the two routes should pass were included in the management plan for "Bulgarka" Park as reserve zones with a total ban on any construction.
To stop the tunnel under Shipka, Toma Belev included it in the reserve. The plan, which the SAC rejected in April, was prepared by the "Bulgarka 2013" consortium, led by former Deputy Minister of Ecology Toma Belev, and was urgently adopted by the Council of Ministers on December 30, 2021, while he was serving as Deputy Minister of Environment and Water. The consortium also included WWF - the World Wide Fund for Nature, represented in Bulgaria by Toma Belev's wife, Veselina Kavrakova. The value of the order for the plan was 2.6 million BGN.
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