site.btaTruck Traffic across Bulgarian-Turkish Border Resumes after Four-Hour Suspension

The Turkish customs administration reopened the Kapikule/Kapitan Andreevo border crossing to heavy goods vehicles at 00:50 hrs on Monday after their movement to and from Bulgaria was suspended at 21:00 hrs on Sunday, the Bulgarian Customs Agency reported. The suspension was caused by the introduction of Phase 5 of the New Computerized Transit System (NCTS), a Europe-wide digital system designed to provide better management and control of goods.

The pause in heavy-duty truck traffic through Europe’s largest land border pass caused vehicles to wait in very long lines. On the Bulgarian side, the queue stretched 40 km into the Maritsa Motorway, according to information provided by Haskovo Regional Governor Mehmed Ataman.

Heavy goods vehicle traffic via Kapikule/Kapitan Andreevo was first resumed in the direction of Turkiye at 00:20 hrs on Monday, and then the opposite way at 00:50 hrs, the Bulgarian Customs Agency said. By 06:00 hrs, the Bulgarian authorities had handled 505 outbound trucks and 230 inbound ones. The checkpoint is operating at full capacity. It can process about 3,000 trucks daily.

By 06:30 hrs, the line of trucks approaching Kapitan Andreevo from Bulgaria’s interior was about 35 km long, drivers said.

The Hamzabeyli/Lessovo crossing was also affected by the introduction of NCTS Phase 5 on the Turkish side of the border, but traffic there is far less intensive than at Kapikule/Kapitan Andreevo.