Complete chaos reigns in the road and railroad projects in Bulgaria funded under the Operational Programme Transport and the responsibility for this is personally borne by Transport Minister Daniel Papazoff and his peer in charge of regional development Desislava Ivanov. What is worse is that the two ministries seem difficult to find a common language, and that is the case even when it comes to the fate of tens or even hundreds of millions of euros.
Just days ago, the Supreme Administrative Court took a decision that virtually stopped the construction of the second part of the western ringroad of Sofia – from Karach River to the North Tangent. Project, after many troubles, was approved for funding by the European Commission.
On this occasion, Deputy Transport Minister Petar Kirov explained to members of the parliamentary Committee on European Affairs and Supervision of European Funds, that there will be no off time for the announcement of the new procedure in the current financing period, and therefore the 30 million euros for the second section of western arc will be transferred to cover the shortage of funds for railway Parvomai – Svilengrad. Last week, Daniel Papazoff said something quite different: „We have not abandoned the project. In case it fails to be completed by the end of 2015 it will be re-targeted for the next programming period.“
The construction of the first section of the Sofia’s western arc, which extends from the Lyulin highway to the river Karach is also in delay compared to the initial plan. The facility had to be ready by July 1, but the President of the Management Board of the Road Infrastructure Agency Stefan Chaikov recently admitted that there already seems to be a delay of … „about 5-6 months“. Although construction began in 2012, what has still not been completed is the land acquisition and litigations with landowners. Furthermore what has been omitted is the junction between Lyulin and Filipovtsi district. The road agency explained that for unknown reasons this lacked in the project, but now they were working namely on it. This will lead to more construction of pedestrian and road overpasses to connect the Roma neighborhood with the rest of the capital.
If these same officials had bothered to look at specialized building forums even before the building of the western arc, they would have known about the missing link. For additional trouble, the beginning of July marked the beginning of large summer returning of Turkish guest workers from Germany, which is now going to cause huge traffic jams building at the temporary crossing between Slivnitsa boulevard and the Sofia ringroad.
„The western arc is not in the risky projects of the government, and it should be included in the list. Firstly, because we see the decease in the speed of operation of the ringroad and delays in the meeting of the deadlines. We should understand that no second phase awits the project. We must be aware that just as the Lyulin highway ended in the middle of nowhere, the first section of the western arc, will end almost there, and will not solve the transport problem in one of the busiest parts of Sofia,“ said former Deputy Minister of Regional Development Liliana Pavlova.
The worst is that the problems are many other road segments. Mr. Papazoff himself openly acknowledged that there is an accumulated delays in the construction of lots 1 and 2 on the highway Maritsa and lots 2 and 4 of the Struma highway. First, the deadline for the completion of the section of Maritsa between Dimitrovgrad and Haranli which is being implemented by the association between ‘PST Holding and the Austrian company Porr was in August 2013. Then, due to financial problems of the contractor, the completion date was postponed to February 2014. However, it also was not met and a new one was set – June 2014.
Another section of Maritsa – from Orizovo to Dimitrovgrad, where the builder is Italy’s CMCD Ravenna with a major subcontractor Patishta Plovdiv, also lagged behind the preliminary schedules and was given extensions until June 2014. Now the Minister of Regional Development Desislava Terzieva says that by the end of the year the highway will be opened, only that Daniel Papazoff again opened the door for a possible extension of the construction until the beginning of 2015.
Also with Struma highway the things do not go smoothly, a proof of which is on-site inspection made last week by the two ministers. Work on the construction of Lot 2 of the Struma (editor’s note: from Dupnitsa to Blagoevgrad) is on schedule, and the physical implementation is at about 20 percent. Deadline for completion is March next year, and for the other section from Sandanski to Kulata is October this year, promised Terzieva. Mr. Papazoff, however, refrained from speaking on this issue. Probably because we know that promises are one thing, but what we have not yet completed are the archaeological studies of the sites. Which in turn prevent a large-scale construction to begin on the 37-lometre route, including two tunnels and four road junctions. A deadline for the entire project is right on the edge of the utilization of funds under the Transport programme in its previous edition – October 30, 2015.
According to the Banker because of the standstill the Transport Ministry was to prepare an urgent report to the Council of Ministers, which describes all the projects at what stage they are and what are the specific problems faced by contractors and clients. It will include not only road and rail sections but also the risks in the transport program. The construction of the railway line from Parvomai to Svilengrad for example lacks 90.45 million levs, and as already mentioned, it is hoped that some of the fund may be covered with money from the failed second stage of the Sofia’s Western Arc. Not without turmoil goes also the building of the speed rail link between Plovdiv and Burgas. Transport Ministry announced that it has agreed with the European Commission the construction of five traction substations, a dispatching unit and the rail junction Burgas as part of this project to be transferred to the new programming period in order to reduce the overall costs now, which come to over 470 million levs.
The over-negotiation played a bad joke on the railroad from Septemvri to Plovdiv, where due to pending expropriation procedure the state will have to transfer four overpasses of about 13 million to be funded by the National Company Railway Infrastructure. All the three projects are awaiting the promised assistance from the state, but it never comes. It seems that with all this mess, together with all the new projects of the new edition of the Transport programme will have to be transferred to the duties of the next cabinet. Daniel Papazoff himself already signaled this: „We have enabled those who will implement the programme to set their priorities because it will not be this Cabinet to set them.“
The BANKER
