Our western neighbor is taking measures against the kilometer-long queues at our border – to build a new crossing point that will take over part of the traffic from and to Serbia.
Every summer and on holidays, kilometer-long queues of vehicles form at the Gradina-Kalotina border crossing. In order to ease the traffic, the two countries plan to build a new crossing point.
A trader from Sofia, worried about the many hours of waiting to enter Bulgaria, welcomes the idea of a new border crossing.
„I comment very positively. I hope the idea is implemented very quickly, because you see what is happening – it is unbearably simple“, says Ivan Petkov, a trader from Bulgaria.
A Serbian businessman who has a cross-border company is also in line. According to him, the new checkpoint will make life easier for local people on both sides of the border.
„A great idea! Especially for people from the region, from Dimitrovgrad and Slivnitsa, because the movement across the border will be faster and there will be no kilometer-long queues and waiting for hours. It would be much better if another, smaller checkpoint were opened, especially for the local population“, says Stanislav Naydanov, a businessman from Serbia.
A significant number of local residents cross the border every day to work in Bulgaria. Among them is Nebojsa Atanasov Ivanov, who is also crossing the border on foot this morning to get to his workplace on time.
„A working day starts early – we get up at five in the morning. At five thirty we leave and by the time we manage to get through these queues and get to the other side, we lose a lot of time. Then we have about half an hour to get to work. And we spend an hour every day at the border alone“, says Nebojsa Ivanov, a worker from Serbia.
Ivanov adds that many people from the border region earn their living by working in Bulgaria.
„Seventy percent of the working-age population in Tsaribrod works in the Republic of Bulgaria. We are grateful that we have the opportunity to work there and thus be able to survive“, says Nebojsa Ivanov.
For hundreds of workers from Tsaribrod, crossing this border is an everyday occurrence, and waiting during the summer months means lost time. The new checkpoint “Gradina–Kalotina 2“ will serve not only them, but also Bulgarian tourists who often visit this part of Serbia in the summer.
Just a few kilometers from the border, we find ourselves in a completely different atmosphere. Despite the long wait at the border, a family from Bozhurishte does not give up their traditional lunch in Lukavitsa, near Tsaribrod.
During the family meeting, they also discuss the idea of a new border crossing.
„We waited for about two hours to cross. We like it here because it is quite close to the border. We also live nearby, on the Bulgarian side, and it is convenient for us to come with our families on the weekend to spend some quality time. Honestly, we would like, if possible, to cross the border in a much shorter time. As is already the case in Schengen and at other borders, if it can be the case here, especially with neighboring Serbia. If this happens, it would be very nice“, says Ivaneta Stoyanova, a tourist from Bulgaria.
“We expected there to be traffic jams, but they were much more than we thought“, says Petko Stoyanov, a tourist from Bulgaria.
“Well, there was a two-hour wait, which I think doesn't need to be like that. Because in this precious time we can see many other things to enrich our history and absolutely everything“, says Valeria Aldimirova, a tourist from Bulgaria.
The hope is that next summer, tourists, workers and businessmen from the two neighboring countries will be able to cross the border more easily.
Now the official authorities in Belgrade and Sofia are on the move.