The 2027 budget will include money for a concept design and a detailed development plan for the whole route from Ruse to Makaza, regional development minister Ivan Shishkov said. He spoke at a joint press conference in Veliko Tarnovo with prime minister Rumen Radev.
"In the 2027 budget you will see that design work will actually start at the concept design stage," Shishkov said.
The ministry will order the development plan for the last section, from the Byala bypass to Veliko Tarnovo, in about 15 days. The tender for work on the landslide along the route has already been announced, and a contractor will be chosen by the end of November.
The ministry and the Road Infrastructure Agency want the designs and development plans ready within 6 months. Both promise a different approach to deadlines and pace, so that delays of 3 to 4 years do not happen again. Under the plan, the route should be ready for actual construction by the middle of next year.
The government is giving the ministry another €2m, the sum Shishkov asked for. The money will pay for more staff and more design capacity.
The road agency first expected the design of the whole motorway to take about 3 years. The cabinet wants it done within one year.
"At most within one year we must have this motorway designed, and I mean the design with permits, with the environmental impact assessment, so that we can award the contract," Radev said.
Radev said the design must come first. Then the owners' land must be bought and the environmental assessment done, and only then can building start. As an example of the wrong approach, he named the Hemus motorway, where building began without a design, without the land acquired and without building permits. Once the design is ready, the government will look for ways to build quickly and to a good standard, Radev promised.
Veliko Tarnovo will become a main transport hub where two motorways cross, and will have one of the best transport links in Bulgaria, Shishkov said. The city's location has called for such a role for decades, but nobody has designed these links in 15 years, the minister added.