site.btaConstruction Begins of Lot 3 of Elin Pelin-Kostenets Railway Section

The construction of Lot 3 of the Elin Pelin-Kostenets railway section in Western Bulgaria, which includes the route between Ihtiman and Kostenets, has started on Thursday, said the National Railway Infrastructure Company (NRIC) on Thursday. The facility is part of the main East-West railway and of Pan-European Corridor VIII, which is extremely important for Bulgaria and its neighbours, and the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T) passing through Bulgaria.

The ceremony was attended by NRIC Director General Zlatin Krumov; the Austrian Embassy's Commercial Counsellor Philippe Kupfer; Kostenets Municipality Deputy Mayor Margarita Mincheva; Ihtiman Mayor Kaloyan Iliev; and Strabag GP Rail consortium's representative Stefan Totev.

The modernization of the Elin Pelin-Kostenets railway is the most ambitious railway project set for implementation under Operational Programme Transport and Transport Infrastructure and planned to be completed under the Transport Connectivity Programme. The scope of the contract includes construction of approximately 12 km of double-track rail line, catenary network, systems and equipment for external power supply and external lighting of station areas, as well as construction of video surveillance systems and passenger information systems. The construction of eight single-tube tunnels for a double railway line with an approximate total length of 5,478 m is also planned for crossing the difficult mountainous terrain, as well as the construction of 11 bridges with an approximate total length of 777.70 m. All this will make travelling on this section faster and more comfortable. The projected speed is 160 km/h for passenger transport and120 km/h for freight transport.