The global credit crunch could yet delay the start of construction works on the Trakia highway, Standart daily reported.

The Bulgarian-Portuguese consortium, Trakia Highway Jsc, picked as highway concessionaire by the Cabinet of former prime minister Simeon Saxe-Cobourg, has had trouble securing funding for the infrastructure project, the daily claimed.

“I will ask concessionaires whether they have contracted the loan necessary to bankroll the project within two weeks,” regional development minister Assen Gagauzov said, as quoted by the daily.

Gagauzov signed, on behalf of the ministry, the amended contract with the highway consortium on January 16, which gave the concessionaire a 120-day period to secure the funding necessary to finish the highway, which would link capital Sofia to Bourgas on the Black Sea.

Portuguese bank Espirito Santo, Credit Suisse First Boston bank and UBS have all been the target of speculation as the possible financial backers of the project, but it now appears that all of them withdrew their interest, for different reasons, Standart daily said.