SOFIA (Bulgaria), July 2 (SeeNews) - Bulgaria has officially reopened for traffic a 67 kilometre railway line between the cities of Plovdiv and Dimitrovgrad, in the country’s south, which has been upgraded to accommodate train speeds of up to 160 kilometers per hour, the state-run National Railway Infrastructure Company (NRIC) said on Monday.
The 220 million euro ($278 million) project, which also involved the electrification of the rail line, received funding from the EU's Instrument for Structural Policies for Pre-Accession (ISPA) programme, the European Investment Bank and the state budget, NRIC said in a statement published on its website.
The railroad section between Krumovo and Parvomay, with a contract value of 105.8 million euro, was upgraded by Greek construction company Terna, while the stretch between Parvomay and Dimitrovgrad was modernised by Italy’s Astaldi under a 68 million euro contract.
The line, inaugurated on Sunday, includes a 20 kilometer double-track section.
The Plovdiv-Dimitrovgrad railway line project is part of the upgrade works on the southeast-bound railway linking Plovdiv with the country's borders with Turkey and Greece. The entire line is scheduled for completion in 2014.
($=0.7943 euro)