Between Bulgaria and Romania will be signed a Memorandum for the preparation of two new bridges over the Danube

In a month and a half the newly built River Information Centre in Rousse will start functioning. That was stated by the Minister of Transport, Information Technology and Communications Nikolina Angelkova after inspection of the site, which is funded by Operational Programme "Transport" 2007 – 2013.

The River Information Center will manage the entire system for monitoring and data collection for shipping in the Bulgarian section of the Danube. The facility was built and equipped for 6 million levs, as part of the project for construction of RIS in the Bulgarian section of the Danube (BULRIS), which is totaled at 37 million levs. Sixteen communication nodes, which transmit information, have already been built.

Next week, Bulgaria and Romania will sign a Memorandum for the preparation of two new bridges over the Danube at Turnu Magurele-Nikopol and Silistra-Calarasi, said Minister Nikolina Angelkova.  The preparation will be financed under the CBC program Bulgaria-Romania 2014-2020, as the aim is to bring a joint application form at the beginning of next year. Public-private partnership will most likely be seeked for the construction of both bridges.

"We are including in the OP "Transport and transport infrastructure" project of the expansion of the bridge at Ruse - Giurgiu," said the Transport Minister. The bridge is part of the Trans-European Corridor 9 which allows it to be benefiting from the operational program. Minister Nikolina Angelkova informed that it is set in the Operational Programme "Transport and Transport Infrastructure" 2014 - 2020 the project of high-speed road between Ruse and Veliko Tarnovo.

The most important project for the Executive Agency "Exploration and Maintenance of the Danube" is to improve the navigation on the Bulgarian-Romanian section of the river. It has been working on this project for many years, but in recent months we have achieved real progress, as we expect in December or at the latest in February 2015, together with Romania, to submit application form for funding under the Connecting Europe Facility,"said Nikolina Angelkova.

Eighty-five million Euro are expected to be designated for the elimination of critical sections only in the Bulgarian part of the river, as the assessment of the environmental impact of the entire project is due to be completed. Despite the complexity of the procedure which should be consistent with the Bulgarian, the Romanian and the European legislation, the EIA of the project is expected to be prepared by 2016.

"Together with our Romanian colleagues we are working on the establishment of a joint company for preparation and management of the project, which is very important for its successful implementation," added Minister Angelkova. According to her, thus the two countries would share mutual responsibility and will be optimized the decision-making process.