Dredging activities to deepen the River Danube in the region of the islands of Vardim and Belene have ended. This is the most critical region for navigation in the Bulgarian section of the river. As a result of the dredging, which took 42 days, the depth of the navigable route was increased by over 100 cm. Following these activities, measurements showed the fairway is more than 3 meters in depth and 150 meters in width, ensuring seamless navigability.
The dredging works were carried out under a contract between the Ministry of Transport, Information Technology and Communications, Executive Agency for Exploration and Maintenance of the Danube River and Cosmos Agency Ltd, which was selected as a subcontractor in February following a tender. The contract signed amounts to 6.7 million leva and ensures maintenance of river levels for a period of three years. In that period, the Executive Agency plans to purchase their own multi-purpose dredging equipment to carry out effectively its obligation to maintain the fairway in the Bulgarian section of the river. The new dredging facilities will be delivered within a project financed under OP Transport and Transport infrastructure 2014-2020, amounting to almost 20 million leva. In the months to come MTITC and EAEMDR are to announce a public procurement bid for the delivery of specialized equipment including dredges, sediment-transporting pipes, a barge, a pontoon and a maneuvering ship.
