Construction of the new Sofia to Vidin railway
The project earmarked to modernise, rehabilitate and expand the Sofia–Vidin railway line has to be finalised by the end of 2012, according to Transport Minister, Petar Mutafchiev.
This is in order to facilitate the construction, which is scheduled to commence in 2013. one of the complications surrounding the project is that its construction would necessitate a lot of private lands to be requisitioned from their owners. The modernisation of the railway segment, incorporating the installation of an entirely new line in parallel which is to be up to standard with all European Union rules, will cost a total of 2.5 billion euro.
The head of the managing branch of the Operative Programme Transport, Neli Yordanova, has said that the financial analysis of the project has so far revealed "exceedingly expensive figures and incomplete project preparation which deters the initiation of any construction work at present. Accordingly, the managing branch has approved only 50 million euro out of the total cost to date", she said, as quoted by Stroitelstvo Gradut.
Once the overhaul and reconstruction of the Sofia–Vidin line is complete, it will cut travel time to three hours because the train will be able to reach speeds of up to 160 km/h. Once the new track is installed, the existing lines will be rehabilitated and kept in exploitation, used as a link and auxiliary support to the new fast line.
The section between Vidin and Brusartsi will be shortened by 22km and the train will no longer stop at several small stations, Brusartsi included. Instead, it will stop at Medkovets. Dimovo and Oreshets are two additional stations which will be bypassed by the new line, instead the new line will serve Montana and Botevgrad.
A total of 30km of tunnels and 30 km of bridges will be built to serve the line, Stroitelstvo Gradut reports. Finally, once the project is completed, permanent employment will be created for 1300 people. And property prices along the track are expected to raise by 35 per cent.
Text source: sofiaecho.com
Photo: google
To see the presentation of the company, please follow the link:
(26.06.2009)