Significant amount of funds in 2007 would go to the budget of the Transport Ministry, Banker newspaper reported.

The ministry will have 667 million leva at its disposal in 2007. Part of the funds will come from the state budget and the bigger portion will arrive from various sources.

The Bulgarian State Railways have long been one of the big beneficiaries, receiving funds from various programmes, without significant results noticeable, Banker reported. Since 200, the state railways have received nearly one billion leva.

Rehabilitation of rail lines and the execution of European transport projects will feature among the main priorities of the ministry for next year.

Though plans sounded good, it was unclear if Transport Minister Petar Moutafchiev and his team were going to be able to recover the state railways, Banker reported.

According to plans all problems should be dealt with by 2020. Among these are old equipment and rail lines in need of urgent renovation.

By that time the ministry plans to use 1.16 billion euro from the European funds to recover 668km of railroads and set up 36km of new tracks. State budget would fund the setting up of 190km of new railroads.

Bulgaria was expecting changes in both political and economic terms by 2020, which made it difficult to predict if the plans could be carried out, Banker reported.