Bulgarian Prime Minister Boiko Borissov said that he was "skeptical" that the Lyulin motorway would be finished by the end of the year. He also promised, as stipulated in the contract, to monitor its progress by making personal inspections of construction every 20 days, Bulgarian media reported on August 13 2010.

Lyulin, the shortest of Bulgaria's planned motorways at 19km, is due to be completed by December 21 2010. The consortium of two Turkish construction companies, Mapa and Cengiz, gave the Government its schedule for completing the project on January 20. Mapa Cengiz signed a contract for the motorway with the director of the national roads agency Vesselin Georgiev.

"I do not know how it will happen exactly, but I will be firm about the quality of the project," Borissov said on August 13, after he inspected an interchange near the Sofia western borough of Lyulin and the tunnels, about seven km beyond the interchange.

Once completed, the motorway is supposed to link the capital Sofia with the Daskalovo interchange near the industrial town of Pernik, and with the Struma Highway leading to the Greek border at Kulata and Promahon, as well as the Sofia-Nis motorway leading towards Serbia.

Previously, Turkish company Mapa-Cengiz had hit the headlines over allegations that it paid Turkish workers triple the salaries of its Bulgarian employees. The firm was also criticised over the slow pace of work on the project, which is financed with European Union funds.
It made the headlines again, when a number of violations were discovered during the surveillance of the Lyulin motorway, conducted by the Bulgarian Chief Labour Inspectorate in late April, in the aftermath of the death of three Turkish workers at the site on April 19.

Mapa Cengiz representatives have now promised to provide more equipment and expedite work. Borissov said that all funding for the project has been provided; he reminded the construction company that they are obliged to complete the work in the agreed time-frame.

According to a recent assessment, as reported by Bulgarian media, construction on the motorway has been delayed by up to two months.