Mrs. Savina, was 2011 successful for you in Sofia? What have you achieved and what remains to be done?
– I can say that the year was extremely successful, but there is always something more to be desired, especially in terms of implemented projects. I think that we have achieved 100% of the objectives we had set. Of course, if you need to talk specifically about the Investment and Construction Directorate, which I am he head of, there are still things that we are in debt to the citizens of Sofia – for example in terms of sanitation and water treatment systems. Or – the building of kindergartens – a lot has been done in relation to this problem I think in the last four or five years, but unfortunately there are still children who are waiting. Plans are in the next year to open some 2,000 additional places for kids, which will take place both through the construction of new buildings and through reconstruction and expansion of old ones.
How does the administration decide where to build new kindergartens? I ask you, because most of the so-called new quarters in Sofia, which appeared in recent years, there are no existing childcare facilities. And there live mostly young people who will need to keep their children elsewhere?
– When pressing problems with a number of places in kindergartens in 2007 became very sensitive, we were accused that we were building mostly in the suburbs as Pancharevo and Kremikovtzi suburban areas. Unfortunately at that time the municipality only had these sites, because many of its properties had already been restituted or privatized. It took time to acquire such land lots again, and the new quarters, we are talking about had to draw town plans.
Now we have about 40 projects, which we are already working on, and must implement them within this mandate I want to say that in order not to have the same problem with the schools over time, we have created a special programme for expansion of their buildings. We have already built two new schools – in Novi Iskar and Strelbishte.
You said that the municipality is indebted to the citizens also in terms of water infrastructure …
– The truth is that this is an issue that can not be fully resolved. The municipality has a strategy for water supply network by 2020 and we have included all the projects we have to implement by that date. Our goal is to build sewers and water mains linking almost every house in Sofia. In 2006, when we started to write this strategy one third of the capital did not have proper sewage. We are now ready for the projects in most critical areas, mainly in northern and southern parts of the city. On some of them, Moderno Predgradie, Iliantsi, Gorublyane , Simeonovo and Dragalevtsi we have begun actual construction.
To do everything as we want it, however we will need a lot of money. Rough calculations show that only the completion of the entire sewerage system will need about BGN1 billion. Just as much we will need for the replacement of plumbing.
To implement these projects you will need to expropriate many sites, but from experience we know that sometimes it turns out to be even more expensive than the original calculations suggest.
– That’s right. Acquisition of the property goes through serious difficulties and is often a major obstacle. Each year, we allocate about 20 million for expropriation and even though the parameters of the 2012 budget are still being negotiated I think that the amount will not be very different.
What happens to the water cycle project in Sofia, which is funded with money from the ISPA programme? It had to be completed by the end of this year. Is there a danger of losing EU funds?
– Within this project we have five main sewage collectors, the treatment plant in Kubratovo, the pressure collector pumping station in Novi Iskar and rehabilitation of the Rila water conduit system. All these projects have been completed except for the right Perlovski collector – we are waiting for it to get certificate for putting into exploitation by the end of the year, so we will meet the deadline.
To a large extent in 2012 the state will rely on European money. What about Sofia – what projects are being preparing under the operational programmes for next year?
– We can boast of great success in the preparation and management of European projects, which is a big plus in the current economic situation. You know that the municipal budget is limited, and there are too many unsolved problems in transport, in ecology, education, social activities, tourism and others. so that the attraction of additional resources is crucial.
We have a total of 33 projects under the operational programmes, seven of which have been completed, ten are in the process of implementation, while the rest expect to receive approval by April 2012 at the latest. Most projects are under the Regional Development programme followed by the Environment, Human Resources and Transportation. The largest of them are known to everyone – the subway, the modernization of urban transport, and the waste processing factory. But there are those who are not for such large amounts, but are extremely important. It’s about strengthening the landslides, flood prevention, development of new sewers in Ovcha Kupel and Gorna Banya transformation of the Central Bath to a museum and so on.
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