Ministry of Transport, Information Technology and Communications

The traffic and status of ships sailing in the territorial waters of Bulgaria will be monitored electronically, said the Minister of Transport, Information Technology and Communications Ivaylo Moskovski during the opening of the coastal center for traffic management in the city of Bourgas.

Prime Minister Boyko Borisov attended the ceremony. During the event, the PM was a presented with the functionality of the system for vessel traffic management, as well as the National Center of electronic maritime data exchange (one stop shop). Prime Minister Boyko Borisov said that the coastal center will help fight smuggling, as there is no longer a way to hide vessels smuggling fuel.

The Center has been constructed under the project "Vessel Traffic Management Information System" (VTMIS), financed by the Operational Programme "Transport" 2007-2013. The value of the whole project is almost 40 million levs and the construction of the two coastal centers in Bourgas and Varna is worth about 4 million levs. 

"With the implementation of the project Bulgaria became one of the first Member States to meet the requirements of the European Union for safety, search and rescue", said Minister Moskovski. In this aspect, our country is already ahead of a number of European countries that have not yet set up similar information systems.

The deployment of a monitoring system will achieve better control of the condition and traffic of ships in order to avoid accidents, collision, grounding and pollution. It will facilitate communication between the various departments and will allow rescue teams to receive information and to react immediately when a vessel is in distress, said Ivaylo Moskovski.

The Coast Center in Bourgas will monitor and manage traffic 24 hours a day. It is designed and constructed so as the centers are interchangeable and where necessary, any of them can take over the functions of the other. Within the project a National Centre for electronic maritime data exchange, also called "one-stop shop". It allows all border agencies to receive the information they need from one source. Data collected by port authorities, the Executive Agency "Maritime Administration", "Border Police", the "Customs" Agency and sanitary services will now be entered electronically. Thus the institutions and businesses will be able to use the available information. This will facilitate the companies in planning the visits of ships in ports and their loading and unloading.

The event was also attended by the Minister of Regional Development and Public Works Lilyana Pavlova, the Minister of Environment and Waters Ivelina Vasileva, the Mayor of Bourgas Dimitar Nikolov, the Director General of Bulgarian Ports Infrastructure Company Angel Zaburtov, the Executive Director of the Bourgas Port Dian Dimov and representatives of the central and local authorities.