"We are absorbing 100 per cent of the EU funding for the construction of the Lyulin Motorway," Prime Minister Boyko Borissov said on Sunday while inspecting a junction in the future motorway at Dragichevo, Pernik Region.

According to Regional Development and Public Works Minister Rosen Plevneliev, the project should utilize a total of 142 million euro until the end of this year in order to get the full amount of 111 million euro in EU financing. The project has so far absorbed 132 million euro, which means that what needs to be absorbed until the end of the year will be utilized two months earlier. "This is a result of the extraordinary pace at which the people here are working," the Minister said.

The 19 km motorway will serve as a link between Sofia and a road in Pernik Region. The Prime Minister said that half of it was built in only six months after another third of it was constructed in three years. He has found that the delay detected during his previous inspection has been reduced from 40 to 10 days.

Borissov and Plevneliev said that 82 per cent of the motorway has been completed. The Prime Minister expressed hope that the project will be fully brought back to schedule by the year's end and will be finished by May 15 of next year.

"The work on the Lyulin Motorway can serve as an example. A total of 1,900 people are working at the site with utmost dedication. Over 80 per cent of the work is being done by Bulgarian companies. I dream of the day when the way of work and organization at the Lyulin Motorway will be carried over to the Trakia Motorway in 2011," Plevneliev said.

The Minister is optimistic and has no anxieties about the deadlines for the construction of the Trakia Motorway in Southern Bulgaria. He said the bankruptcy procedure for the Moststroy company has not started yet. "But the State is protected because the other members of the consortium have agreed to share the responsibility," he said.

Source: BTA