Seventy companies have bought application paperwork to bid at the international auction for the construction of Lyulin Highway, belting capital Sofia. This was among the reasons to extend the deadline for lodging offers with 15 days, until October 26, the Regional Development Ministry announced. The decision was adopted after coordination with the Delegation of the European Commission to Bulgaria, the ministry's press centre also said.

The notice of international auction for the construction of Lyulin Highway was published on June 16 in the official EU Journal and two Bulgarian daily newspapers. The information for the deadline extension will be published on the EC web site and mailed to all companies that have bought documentation to participate.

Companies and tie-ins from the EU, Bulgaria, Romania, Turkey, Albania, Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, and Serbia and Montenegro are eligible bidders in the tender. They are required to have extensive experience and to have successfully completed at least two similar projects since1999, each costing more than EUR 4 M.

Individual construction companies should have an annual turnover of more than EUR 40 M. The leading partners in the applying consortiums should have an annual turnover of EUR 32.5 M for the period between 2002 and 2004.

The project for the construction of 19-km road-belt is part of the trans-European transport corridor No.4 spanning on Bulgarian territory the cities of Vidin and Sofia with the Kulata border checkpoint on the north-south axis. Its cost is estimated at EUR 148.45 M, including EUR 37.112 funding by Bulgaria. The highway is anticipated also as an alternative to resolve one of gravest problems of the capital's traffic, which in many parts runs through densely populated Sofia neighbourhoods.