site.bta Interdepartmental Restoration, Support Commission to Extend Lv 28 Mln to Disaster-hit Regions

Interdepartmental Restoration, Support Commission to Extend Lv 28 Mln to Disaster-hit Regions

Sofia, February 17 (BTA) - The Interdepartmental Commission on
Restoration and Support with the Council of Ministers will
extend 28 million leva for the disaster-hit regions, Commission
Secretary Lyubomir Vurbanov told journalists Tuesday. The
extension of the funds should also be approved by the Council of
Ministers. They are mainly intended to restore damaged
infrastructure.

The Commission also relies on the EU Solidarity Fund to aid the
municipalities which were flooded last year. Part of the funds
will also be used to prevent new accidents and damages in
Bourgas, Veliko Turnovo, Varna, Gabrovo and Svoge.

The Commission has discussed the decommissioning and repair of
dangerous dams. Experts initially established that there are 106
dangerous dams but a careful inspection has brought the number
down to 61, Deputy Agriculture Minister Georgi Kostov said. Most
of them are the property of municipalities and only two are
private. The Commission decided to extend 500,000 leva to make
these dams safe, which should be done before the end of March.

There is already an attested application form for some 21
million leva aid for Bulgaria at the Solidarity Fund. The second
application form submitted to the EU concerns two regions -
Vidin and Vratsa - and is expected to result in nearly 4 million
leva in aid. Yet another application for aid is currently being
prepared, focused on the January disasters.

A total of 2,100 requests for aid summarily worth 450 million
leva have been submitted to the Commission over the past four
years, Kostov said.