During the October 2003 public consultations, the local people opposed to the construction of the Ljulin Motorway close to the Bankya Resort. Yet, the Ministry of Environment has refrained from issuing a new environmental permit, claiming that the old one is fully legitimate. The lack of a final ministerial decision regarding the new EIA procedure, makes the opinion of the Bulgarian public once again pointless and it seriously disregards the implementation of the ISPA Financial Memorandum.
Please, support the local communities to raise their voice at the European Commission.
On 20th December 2003 Sofia Municipality formally implemented the decision of the Sofia Municipal Council and examined an alternative route for the Ljulin Motorway. The route was rejected as not being a better one than the one already considered. The High Expert Council for Territory Organization under the Ministry of Regional Development and Public Works (MRDPW) has considered two alternative routes. A decision has not been issued yet. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Environment and Waters (MEW) missed the three-month deadline according to art. 99 from the Environmental conservation act, to issue an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) decision after the public hearings. According to the Administrative rights act, this could be interpreted as an implicit refusal for issuing an EIA decision, which means that the requirements of the financial memorandum have not completely been fulfilled.
The Municipal Council of Sofia Municipality has rejected the project proposal for the route of the "Ljulin" Motorway presented by the Road Executive Agency. The decisions of the Municipal Council do not have the power to stop the project but it is creditable that they expressed any attitude on the issues.
The Municipality is offended by the reluctance of the Road Executive Agency to coordinate the project with them and to give them materials about it. Eng. Deljana Sechenska from the Architecture and Urban-planning Directory of Sofia Municipality, says that this is a "motorway killer", envisaging the great number of curves constructed in combination with high viaducts and the restriction planned to limit the speed, which will surely be violated. Mrs Sechenska has always stressed on the difficulties for constructing such facilities from engineer-geological point of view. In the Environmental Impact Assessment Report, which was adopted last autumn, the difficulties in the maintenance during the winter season were underlined. Moreover, it is highlighted that the traffic needs to be diverted when temperature inversions, typical for the region, occur.
There were public consultations of the Revised EIA report concerning the "Ljulin" Motorway:
11th October 2003 in the villages of Malo Buchino and Ivaniane;
13th October 2003 in the town of Bankja;
14th October 2003 in the districts of Sofia - Knjazhevo and Ovcha Kupel.
Everywhere, the people expressed their disagreement with the route proposed by the Roads Executive Agency. It became clear that this route will not solve the traffic and pollution problems in the district of Knjazhevo, and will only cause new ones:
- air pollution in the balneological center of Bankja and preconditions for the formation of poisonous photochemical smog, which causes cancer diseases;
- threat for the mineral waters in Bankja;
- abolishing the potential for development of the resort as a relaxation and tourism zone for Sofia.
For more details about the public consultations click here here.
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