The tension continues over the cutting down of the trees along the capital's "Oplchenska" street. for repair. Mayor Vasil Terziev stated that he did not make a single decision to cut them down.
Yesterday in the Metropolitan City Council, Anton Hekimyan stated exactly this, but today Terziev reminded that this is entirely a project of GERB.
„What does the unilateral decision of the mayor mean, there is a project. This project includes the construction of a sewer. There is no way to implement this sewage under the roots of the trees. Separately, it was written and spoken a lot that half of these trees are invasive species, this is not a valuable tree. It has been said enough times that we will plant a lot more – 39 trees are cut, 50 are planted along the street and another 53 in the area, Terziev said.
He said that
the decision to cut down the trees was made by the previous administration of the Metropolitan Municipality, not by him.
The mayor assured that large trees will be planted. It is not true that we are not excited about the greenery in the city. It can be seen from the data how much afforestation has been done and how many large trees have been planted, more than in previous years, said the capital's mayor.
We take great care of the green system, and together with waste, both topics are priorities for the municipality, said Terziev. The fact that in this project it is necessary to take the difficult decision to cut down the trees in order to build a modern sewage system and to pass the pipes of all the utility companies, does not mean that we took it lightly, said Vasil Terziev. For us, every single tree is a value, that's why we will continue to actively plant trees and Sofia will continue to be a green city, which is one of the greatest values and riches of our city, together with the waters and Vitosha, pointed out the capital's mayor.
According to him, with the topic of "Oplchenska" we are entering another pre-election episode, in which everything will be distorted, and the facts will be adjusted as it suits someone. The same protesters who previously protested on "Patriarcha" then appeared on "Oplchenska". They suddenly changed their address registration, said Terziev. He is of the opinion that the topics will again acquire a political flavor.
Mayor Terziev commented on the subject of the repair of Opalchenska St. during the inspection of the cleaning activities of the Slatinska River between "Ivan Salimanski" Street and "Botevgradsko shose" blvd.
The first stage of the complete reconstruction of “Oplchenska“ from the intersection with “Slivnitsa“ to “Todor Aleksandrov“ Blvd. started on July 18 this year.
The entire renovation should be completed by March 2025.
The project involves the removal of 39 trees, which began on September 4 under police protection. Citizens protested for weeks against the implementation of the project, which provides for the reconstruction of the engineering infrastructure - new sewage, construction of new pipe networks and water supply branches, as well as replacement of the electricity distribution network.