Ministry of Transport, Information Technology and Communications

Railway traffic along the section Nova Zagora – Karnobat will be ceased so as to ensure safety at railway stations with manual traffic control. This emerged from today’s inspection conducted by the Minister of Transport, Information Technology and Communications Ivaylo Moskovski. The section is at the total length of 80 km and passengers are to be transported by coach. This will continue until the normal signaling and security equipment is restored.

Currently the stations Nova Zagora, Bezmer, Yambol, Tzerkovski, Aitos and Burgas are controlled manually because of the reconstruction works within the project for modernization of the railway line Plovdiv – Burgas. The contractors promised Moskovski that they would speed up the implementation and in a month and a half the regular traffic would be restored. Until then passengers will be transported by coach from the station of Nova Zagora to Karnobat and the costs will be covered by the companies that are contractors under the project.

In recent months there have been several occasions when due to human error two trains were directed at one and the same track at stations, which were manually controlled. Thus Minister Moskovski carried out an urgent inspection on spot to get aquatinted with the circumstances and introduce measure to enhance safety.

At the railway station of Burgas, Ivaylo Moskovski announced that he had had talks with the Minister of Culture and they had agreed on a project for its modernization. The arrival hall of the station has an architectural and cultural value, which conditions the need for agreement before issuing a construction permit. “I have ordered NRIC to file in all the documentation in due time at the Municipality of Burgas to obtain the construction permit”, said the Transport Minister. Speeding up this project is very important as the deadline for construction goes beyond the permissible deadline for expenses under OP Transport 2007-2013. “We will do our best to speed up the work and to fully absorb the EU financing”, added the Minister. The total value of the two contracts (construction and monitoring) for modernization of the station is 8.1 million Lev, VAT excluded (with 10 per cent incidental costs).