site.btaRegional Development Minister: Operation Authorization Certificatete for Bulgaria-Greece Gas Interconnector Expected Next Week

Caretaker Regional Development Minister Ivan Shishkov said that an operation authorization certificate for the gas interconnector between Bulgaria and Greece is expected to be issued next week. Shishkov spoke on Sunday on a Bulgarian National Television show. “I expect that the construction supervisor and the contractor will submit a final report for the commissioning of the interconnector at the Directorate for National Construction Control tomorrow," he said.

The interconnector will be commissioned within several days, provided that all documents have been submitted by the supervisor, said Minister Shishkov.

Shishkov said that the interconnector has been designed and constructed for larger capacities than what have been agreed. 

Of the Hemus motorway Shishkov said that it is a very bad decision to halt the construction of motorways. He said that the previous caretaker government wanted to end bad practices and not large infrastructure projects. “Seven months later we find it was large infrastructure projects that have been halted rather than the bad practices,” said Shishkov.

The Minister said that the biggest problem is the chaos in infrastructure construction and that motorways are build piecemeal and the big picture is lacking.

Shishkov said that politicians use motorways as a photo opportunity.

He added that politicians should plan all motorways and draw up a clear schedule when and how they will be built. A large number of traffic accidents in Bulgaria are because roads have little capacity and traffic as outweighs it.