On September 17, the deadline set by the court expired, within which the Sofia Municipality had to remove the temporary tram route along the NDK tunnel. One of the busiest tram routes - that along Bulgaria Blvd. - may soon become prohibited for the movement of trams, warns Save Sofia.
The temporary route along Gen. Skobelev Blvd. was built in 2010 due to the construction of the NDK metro station. Sixteen years and four managerial terms later, a final decision has not been made. Tram lines 1, 6, 7 and 27 pass along these tracks, which serve tens of thousands of passengers daily.
“The accumulated inaction over years may now lead to a real interruption of tram traffic on “Bulgaria“ Blvd. and “Vitosha“ Blvd. This is not a problem that appeared yesterday. We all knew about it, but the solution was constantly postponed“, commented Gergin Borisov - municipal councilor from Spasi Sofia.
Borisov recalled that a year ago he had asked what the Sofia Municipality would do. “We supposedly received assurances that they would meet the deadlines, but apparently this did not happen. This is another time bomb that is exploding in Terziev's hands,” commented Borisov.
Back in 2017, "Save Sofia" proposed an option that simultaneously solves the problem for those living directly next to the route and preserves all tram routes. "The Sofia Municipality, then governed by Fandakova, chose to destroy the tram route to Lozenets with a project to reconstruct the tunnel," commented Borisov and specified that the project is among the topics that Save Sofia has raised since the beginning of its mandate, for which they have not been heard.
"Time has indeed run out – there is already a court decision in force and an unmet deadline. The residents of the buildings that condemned the municipality have the right to insist that the tram be removed from the local area, and the mayor faces charges of misconduct in office, as well as daily fines, if he does not comply with the court's decision,“ commented from Spasi Sofia.
“As I did last year, this year too I insist that Mayor Vasil Terziev immediately present a clear plan on how the Sofia Municipality will comply with the court's decision, without allowing any interruption of traffic on this key route for southern Sofia,” Borisov said.