Sofia will Invest over BGN 100 Million in Transport Infrastructure in 2018


| News •

Over BGN 103 million are planned by the Sofia Municipality to invest in transport infrastructure in 2018, with investments of 37 million BGN in the tramway track. For the first time next year the funds for transport infrastructure in Sofia are divided equally between investments in the big streets and boulevards and the repair and construction of neighborhood streets. This was said by the mayor of Sofia Municipality Yordanka Fandakova in an interview with BTA.

Over BGN 103 million are planned by the Sofia Municipality to invest in transport infrastructure in 2018
Over BGN 103 million are planned by the Sofia Municipality to invest in transport infrastructure in 2018 © Bulphoto

According to her words next year, Sofia Municipality will have the opportunity to spend more money on the renovation and construction of neighborhood streets with the help of district mayors. Priority sites are to be identified in each of the 24 districts of Sofia.

Replacing the means of transport is another priority in view of the commitment to modernizing urban transport. The municipality is preparing to buy new 142 gas buses and the first 20 electric buses that will start to get involved in the city's traffic at the end of the year.

"In this way, we will be able to meet the very ambitious bus change program and in 2019 to bring the average age of buses between 6 and 7 years old, a very good European standard. For the last 2-3 years we managed to reduce the average age from 30 to 9 years", Fandakova said.

The metro project is more than a strategic transport site, it is a strategic environmental project - we expect to save 90,000 tons of harmful emissions per year, the mayor said. It is built mainly with European funds but also requires its own funding. The funds in its budget is BGN 327 million, of which 16.7 million is its own funding. For the next year we plan more than BGN 16.5 million from the Sofia Municipality budget to finance the third subway line.

The Center for Urban Mobility will complete in 2018 the construction of two buffer parking lots - at the metro station at "Vasil Levski" Stadium and at "Slivnitsa" Metro Station. Existing parking parks of Business Park Sofia, Tsarigradsko shosse Blvd and Cherni Vrah Blvd are increasingly being used. The completion of the traffic management system with the prioritization of the vehicles from the public transport is completed, Fandakova also said.