site.btaRegional Development Minister: Work Underway to Ensure Building, Rehabilitation and Expansion of Routes in Order to Address Heavy Traffic

Heavy traffic is a problem for this country, we are working hard on the construction of routes, their rehabilitation and expansion so that it can take all the traffic, caretaker Minister of Regional Development and Public Works Violeta Koritarova told journalists here on Tuesday. Koritarova's statement came in response to a journalist's question in connection with information published by the Chamber of Bulgarian Road Hauliers (CBRH) from a forum held in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, of the Union of Road Transport Associations in the Black Sea Economic Cooperation Region. The CBRH release states that Bulgaria has been "publicly criticized for the chaos being created at border crossings" and that "Turkiye and Greece have united around their intention to find an alternative transport corridor to bypass Bulgaria".

"In recent years we know that traffic has gone on wheels, unfortunately heavy traffic has increased a lot and our roads are taking it, but we have a bottleneck in processing at border crossings," Minister Koritarova added. She pointed out that this is why the caretaker Government is working to expand border crossings.

"There are problems at all checkpoints in the country, we are closely monitoring the processes," she said. Koritatova pointed out that efforts are made to ensure that Bulgaria is not bypassed and that it meets the infrastructure required to make it a preferred route for traffic.

Commenting the Region of Blagoevgrad and the Kulata border crossing (on the border with Greece), she said that an extension is being considered with the Road Infrastructure Agency to differentiate heavy traffic from light traffic in order to ease the passage. Minister Koritarova also commented on the issue of Bulgaria's accession to the land-based Schengen, saying that work is underway to this end. "We hope to meet these conditions as quickly as possible so that we can be an equal member in the Schengen on land as well," the Regional Development Minister said.

Minister Koritarova was in Blagoevgrad Tuesday at the invitation of the Blagoevgrad Regional Administration in connection with the 25th anniversary of the institution.