Minister Ivan Shishkov: We are expanding the border crossing "Lesovo" and reversing the direction of the oil pipeline "Alexandroupolis - Burgas"

The "Lesovo" border checkpoint will be expanded, and an expressway will connect it to the "Maritsa" highway. This was announced by the Minister of Regional Development and Public Works Arch. Ivan Shishkov during his guest appearance on "This Morning" on BTV.

"Our border crossings are extremely impassable and have a permeability problem. President Rumen Radev is already in talks with the President of Turkey, Recep Erdogan, to expand the border crossing "Lesovo". According to our proposal, in addition to the extension of "Lesovo", we will also build an expressway that will connect the point with the "Maritsa" highway, the minister announced. Thus, together with the "Kalotina" checkpoint, there will be two large points that will be able to handle the huge traffic.

The same is the case with the "Ruse - Makaza" highway, which is extremely important because it is not just an autobahn, it is a geopolitical highway, the regional minister explained.

Arch. Shishkov also announced something very important - that on the day that the work on the interconnector with Greece was finished, the talks between our president Rumen Radev and the Greek president about the oil pipeline "Aluxandroupolis - Burgas" began. "We are reversing the movement and direction of this oil pipeline. The topic for him is extremely important, because in a year or so, our oil will go from being the cheapest at the moment to being the most expensive. The talks in this direction have not only started, but the specifics are already being worked on, apart from at the expert and political level," the regional minister also announced.

The minister also commented on the topic of why we have so few highways and the problems related to payments and the poor quality of the pavement. According to him, the biggest problem is that because of the few highways built, the traffic on them is very high. He pointed out that in the last 10-12 years there has been no strategy not only for the development of highways, but also for the entire infrastructure in Bulgaria. And this can be done in more than one term - here is the difference between politicians and experts.

Arch. Shishkov pointed out that the problem with AM "Struma" has been in place since Borisov's time. Right now we have a final procedure to finalize the measures to protect the natural environment, and then to prepare the detailed development plan. I believe there will be a permit for a small section in April, May. "Politicians talk a lot about highways, but do little," Shishkov summarized.

He explained that during the previous regular cabinet, 50% of what was owed to the companies was paid. At the moment we have paid 100% but for all current repairs done. However, we cannot pay for the repairs, which were carried out as basic, because they have turned into illegal construction, although not through the fault of the construction companies," commented the regional minister. He noted that in order to solve this problem, a text has already been submitted to the National Assembly to amend the Law on Territorial Planning, referring to the illegal construction. Arch. Shishkov also developed his idea of giving concessions to roads - according to him, this will reduce corruption and increase the quality of their maintenance.

Tomorrow, the regional minister has invited the capital's mayor, Yordanka Fandakova, to conduct a joint inspection of the repair of the "yellow paving stones" in Sofia. On this occasion, he commented in the cold of bTV that the problem with the yellow paving stones is very serious and he hopes together with the mayor of the capital to inspect the repair activities and to see all the problems. He recalled that the Ministry of Public Works and Transport extended the deadline for the repair by 6 months, so as not to lose the European funds for the construction of the site. The funds are provided by the Operational Program "Regional Development". A month and a half after the last meeting between the minister and the mayor of Sofia, Yordanka Fandakova, no information has been received in the Ministry of Planning and Development, where the problem lies in the project or in the contractors.

The minister commented that for the repair of "Graf Ignatiev" street, which is part of the project with the repair of the yellow paving stones, the MRRD did not rule on the quality of the implementation. On the proposal of the minister, the mayor of Sofia has asked the MRRD to pay the European money. That's why the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications starts an implementation check. As a result of yesterday, serious repair work began on Graf Ignatiev Street. But he pointed out that the worrying thing in this case is something else – in the last 2-3 weeks, Sofia was empty and the weather was spring, and no one did anything to fix the problems, although a lot of work could have been done. "We do not want to impose a financial correction on the project, because that way we will punish Sofia, not politician Fandakova. I want us to help so that we can fix all the defects and complete the repairs. Let's do it the way it should be done and let's use them," Minister Shishkov was categorical.