Ministry of Transport, Information Technology and Communications

Another metro station and 1.3 km of new metro lines will be put into operation by the end of July, said the Minister of Transport, Information Technology and Communications Ivaylo Moskovski during an inspection of the project on the extension of the second metro diameter. The new section with one metro station is completed and is currently being carried out testing of all equipment and systems along the track. Minister Moskovski, the Mayor Yordanka Fandakova and Eng. Stoyan Bratoev traveled the distance between the newly constructed "Vitosha" metro station and "James Boucher" metro station.

"During the realization of this part of the project we had to apply flexibility to provide the necessary funds under Operational Programme on "Transport ", said Minister Moskovski. He pointed out that upon taking office in 2014 "Metropoliten" EAD had had severe financial difficulties due to the refusal of the previous government to fund the section under the operational programme. "We divided the project into two parts, the one was funded under the old programming period and the second phase is funded under OP on "Transport and transport infrastructure", added the Minister.

The Mayor of Sofia municipality Yordanka Fandakova explained that within ten days along the section will start to travel trains without passengers, which is the last phase before putting the facility into operation. The expected effect after the launch of the new track is to increase passengers using the metro to more than 20 000 passengers per day. Thus, the total number of the people traveling in a working day will reach 350 000.

Contractor of the project "Extension of Line 2 from „James Boucher" metro station to "Vitosha" metro station" is “Metro Cherni Vrah - 2013". The total funding under both programs is  at the amount of slightly over 41 million BGN, 19.5 million BGN of which is provided under OP on "Transport" 2007-2013 and 22.1 million BGN under OP on "Transport and transport infrastructure" 2014 – 2020. After the completion of the project the total length of the metro shall reach 40 km with 35 metro stations.