Bulgarian developer Glavbolgarstroy hired the Bulgarian office of Deutsche Bank to advise it in its bid to build Rila highway, Borislav Ivanov, the managing director of Deutsche Bank Bulgaria, said on March 5.

The bank will help Glavbolgarstroy draw up its offer for the tender to build the highway section and help manage the project businesswise, as well as map out its financial parameters, according to the agreement signed a day earlier.

As part of its duties, the bank would help Glavbolgarstroy find strategic partners for the project to build and run the Rila highway, should the company seek any.

Deutsche Bank would not comment whether it would itself vie to finance the infrastructure project. Last month, Ivanov said that the bank was interested, in principle, in financing large infrastructure projects, including highways.

The Bulgarian Ministry of Regional Development and Public Works is yet to call a tender to build the highway.

The Rila highway project would link Struma with the Trakia and Hemus highways and is still in the pre-project phase, with the initial studies launched at the end of 2007.

Speaking to Dnevnik daily, Glavbolgarstroy officials said that the company was capable of building the highway in three years.