Miroslav Petrov, Director General of State Enterprise “Port Infrastructure” (SEPI): We plan repairs of the ports in Burgas, Varna, Lom and Ruse
Mr. Petrov, is there interest in the construction of new terminals? The construction of a new terminal in Varna, particularly in the lake, has begun. There is a private investor. The company is big and serious. The design provides for the terminal to be used for grain and container cargo. The building permit has been received and the municipality has approved the building projects. And as far as I know, the contractor prepares the actual construction activities. I cannot comment on the investment in the new facility but the construction of a port terminal will cost hundreds of millions of euros. Does the state provide investment in new equipment? Now ports in Bulgaria are not loaded to the maximum. Port Varna is running at nearly full capacity but all others use between 10 and 40% of their capacity. Before reaching the necessity of a new facility, the capacity of the existing ones should be met. I think we can speak of a new terminal only if it is specialized. We do not have a port for the so-called dangerous loads such as chemicals and liquefied gas. On the Black Sea coast we have two for liquid cargo. Therefore we can say that there is a niche for specialized terminals. Other conventional and bulk cargo can be handled by ports that have not fulfilled their capacities. Do you have other plans that you intend to implement next year? A harbor station in Burgas should be built. There is no such facility yet. It is envisaged this to be done between the first and fourth berth and the passenger traffic to pass through it. The project is very large and is implemented in cooperation with the municipality of Burgas and port Burgas. The naval station should be built by SEPI and the municipal activities will be directed to connecting to the bus station and its related infrastructure so as to form an ensemble. Port Burgas will participate with work on the water infrastructure and road approaches. The building resembles an airport terminal. It must be equipped with all facilities for servicing and checking passengers. It is planned next autumn the first passenger liner to dock on it. Another important project for us is the implementation of the so-called passportization of all sites managed by the enterprise. These are facilities ashore, all administrative and storage buildings as well as the approaches to Varna and Burgas. Each year we spend funds for dredging of ports. This year that was done to Port Vidin-south, as well as to the estuary of Provadiiska River. It is imperative that this be done to the terminals Ruse-west and Ruse-east because the entrances of both firths are choked and to normalize their work they should be cleaned. Port Svishtov is specific for the island, which is located right in front of it. In the last two years nothing has been done there and now we should take actions to not stop operation of the port. Two of the restored figures were placed at the Monument to the Tsar Liberator The two side horse figures on the composition of the Monument to the Tsar Liberator were successfully returned to their place on the “National Assembly” Square after the restoration work on them. On Wednesday morning, Sofia citizens greeted the day with a rare sight – hung on a crane horses with riders waiting to be installed. These were the monuments to the Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich – Commander –in-Chief of the Danube Army, and Count Nikolai Ignatiev. Besides the main – of the Tsar Liberator, the composition has two smaller monuments of horsemen. They are General Nikolai Stoletov and General Yosif Gurko. Meanwhile, the work on cleaning and restoration of the granite wall and limestone balustrade around the monument continues.