Eight companies have filed offers for the construction of the section of Trakiya Highway between Nova Zagora and Yambol, their bids opened on October 2, but the price offers will be made public in November, Dnevnik daily reported. The winning bidder will have to complete the construction in two years, by 2011, the newspaper said.

Three bidders are Bulgarian and the rest foreign. The local bidders are the biggest three construction companies in the country - Holding Putishta, Trace Group and Glavbolgarstroy.

The trio have made their interest to work on Trakiya known in spring, when a Bulgarian-Portuguese consortium picked to finish the highway and administer it under concession for 30 years ran into trouble securing financing for the works.

According to National Movement for Stability and Progress MP Olimpi Kutev, the three Bulgarian companies would win the tenders because the requirements of the tender, launched in August, were drafted to give them an advantage and ensure that they win.

The foreign bidders are the Turkish company Dogus Insaat, which is currently building the section of the highway from Karnobat to Bourgas, as well as being picked to build a stretch of Sofia metro; Turkish firm Onur Construction International, which in 2002 built highways in Croatia and Ukraine; Austrian companies Strabag, best known in Bulgaria for the delays in the construction of Sofia airport's new terminal, and Alpine Bau; as well as Greek construction firm Aktor, which has experience working on large-scale projects from the time of the Athens Olympics.

The Government expects the construction of section between Nova Zagora and Yambol to cost about 340 million leva, about 300 million leva of which will be paid by the budget surplus for this year. The cost of each is estimated at about 4.8 million euro, double what the Bulgarian-Portuguese consortium offered in 2005.

Most of the money from the budget surplus, or about 200 million leva, are for the construction itself, while about 90 million leva will be used for alienation of land and repairs, said Yordan Mirchev, the chairperson of Parliament's transport committee, as reported by Dnevnik. According to the chief executive of the National Road Infrastructure Agency, Dimitar Ivanov, the agency was already experiencing difficulties expropriating lands.

Currently, tenders are announced for two parts of the section - from Stara Zagora to Nova Zagora and from Nova Zagora to Yambol. The total length of the section is 36 km.