Images of new undergound stations in “Ovcha Kupel” section, set to open by the end of April

"Ovcha Kupel" route of the underground in Sofia is 4 km long, with 4 metro stations, one of which is joint with the railway station of the national railway network and provides connection with the train to Pernik.

The construction of the route started in May 2017 and was completed at the end of 2020. "The 4 stations on Ovcha Kupel route will start operating by the end of April," Prof. Stoyan Bratoev, the executive director of "Metropolitan” (the operator of the entire metro system) told BNT on April 2.

It will take 12 minutes from "Ovcha Kupel" residential area to get to the centre of Sofia on the underground. It is estimated that 45,000 passengers will use the new 4 stations.

More than 1000 builders, suppliers and workers have taken part in the construction of the 4 km long section.

Photos taken by BNT photo journalist Dessislava Kulelieva show design and architecture of the new stations from "Ovcha Kupel" section of the underground in Bulgaria's capital Sofia.

More interesting facts about the construction:

• 4 construction methods were used - classic open method in a pit with slopes, open method in a pit with reinforcement, Milan method (two-way tunnel in the section between stations "Ovcha Kupel" and "Gorna Banya") and New Austrian tunneling method (the tunnels in the section between the stations “Mizia/NBU” and “Ovcha Kupel 2”. A 160 m tunnel has been built under the New Austrian tunneling method (NATM) to change the direction of the trains by passing from one track to another, located west of the station platform;
• The construction of the section costs 102 million euros. The route is included as an independent project in Operational Programme “Transport and Transport Infrastructure” priority axis 3 “Intermodality for the Transportation of People and Freights”, as the programme finances 66% of the costs for the section and 34% is co-financing of Sofia Municipality with an EIB loan;
• There are two leaders of the teams that made the interior design of the stations - arch. Irena Derlipanska - of Ovcha Kupel and Mizia/NBU station, and arch. Konstantin Kosev. His team made the design of "Ovcha Kupel 2" and "Gorna Banya" stations.
• There is a possibility for passengers to pay with bank cards directly at the entrance. For this purpose, a column with readers for contact and contactless bank cards is installed. In the column there is a device that issues a receipt for the bank transaction with a barcode, which can be checked by any control
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images by Dessislava Kulelieva