The Japanese company Taisei Corporation has been contracted to construct two new subway stations in the Bulgarian capital of Sofia. A new section of subway is planned to run 4.8km from the St Nedelya square downtown area to the Dragab Tsnakov Boulevard to the south. Press reports in late September said that Taisei had won the auction for financing the extension of the Sofia subway with a US$83.4M bid. The bid was 27% less than the credit offered by the Japanese Bank for International Development. The municipality will have to refund the money borrowed within 30 years, although there is a ten year grace period. Sofia currently has eight subway stations and the new extension is due to ready by the autumn of 2007.
