Bulgaria would inject 6.5 billion leva in upgrading the country's railways by 2013 if the plan put forth by Transport Minister Petar Moutafchiev and the chairperson of Parliament's transport committee Yordan Mirchev is adopted by the Cabinet, Dnevnik daily reported.

Moutafchiev presented the plan on October 17 and said that the figure was based on "detailed calculations" of how many new train engines, coaches and wagons needed to be bought, as well as the exact cost of repairing or replacing existing railway infrastructure.

Unless an "aggressive investment strategy" was pursued, the two loss-making state-run companies would have to cut down on the services they offer, Moutafchiev was quoted as saying by website mediapool.bg.

The plan envisages the allocation of 3.94 billion leva to operator Bulgarian State Railways (BDZ) and a further 2.56 billion leva for National Railways Infrastructure Company. The bulk of the funds would come from the state budget, but 1.4 billion leva in European Union funds were pencilled in as well, while 360 million leva are expected to come from a World Bank loan.

The plan has been submitted to Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev and is expected to be discussed by the leaders of the three parties in Bulgaria's ruling coalition when they next meet later this month or in November. There was no guarantee that the plan would be adopted, but the ministry would ask that its funds allocation in the 2009 Budget is increased by 70 per cent, Moutafchiev said, as quoted by Dnevnik.

The number of people served by BDZ has dropped to about 35 million a year from more than 110 million in the early 1990s, mainly due to declining quality, Reuters reported.