The procedures for the expansion and completion of the Plovdiv Ring Road will be restarted, and the approach to the implementation of large infrastructure projects will be completely changed. This was announced by the Minister of Regional Development and Public Works Ivan Shishkov after a working meeting in Plovdiv with the MP Vladimir Nikolov and the regional governor Georgi Yanev, Nova TV reports.
The main emphasis in the minister's position was the cessation of the practice of giving advances for construction without completed projects and administrative readiness.
“We will not give out advances for construction. First we will design and then we will start building“, said Shishkov. According to him, it is this model that is the reason why a number of strategic sites remain only at the stage of promises, without real progress.
The minister pointed out that a serious lag in preparation and a lack of real project readiness have been established for the Plovdiv Ring Road. He specified that despite the start of the procedures in 2022, at the moment, detailed development plans, permits and expropriation procedures are missing for a large part of the route.
Shishkov announced that the acceleration of the design work on the southern and eastern parts of the ring road has been assigned, with the goal being to complete the necessary projects and move on to actual construction within a year and a half.
“The ring road will also have locales. They create economic and commercial zones around them. In addition to easing traffic, this will allow Plovdiv to acquire a completely different appearance,“ he pointed out.
People's representative Vladimir Nikolov commented that the meeting was initiated after signals from city residents about the heavy traffic. “It takes over 45 minutes to get around the city on the current ring road. This is absolutely unacceptable“, he said.
The project for water supply to Plovdiv and Haskovo from the “Dospat“ dam was also discussed during the meeting. According to Shishkov, the lack of project readiness there has already led to serious consequences. He added that during his previous administration it became clear that part of the European funding had not been absorbed precisely because of the lack of ready projects.