The Municipality of Botevgrad is included with projects worth BGN 5 million in the Concept for Integrated Territorial Investments for the Development of the Sofia Region (News, Botevgrad)

In the “Botevgrad” hall, the concept for integrated territorial investments for the development of the Sofia region was presented. The leading partner in the development is the Regional Government, its partners are the municipalities of Botevgrad, Etropole and Zlatitsa, as well as the Road Infrastructure Agency. The regional administration has undertaken two activities – the repair of the “Rudinata” hut, which it owns, and the cleaning of the riverbeds outside the urbanized territories.

Botevgrad Municipality participates with two main activities. One is aimed at investment in tourism and the other is flood risk prevention and management. The total value of the projects is about BGN 5 million.

The Concept includes a project to repair the Zlatish Pass, which has been closed to traffic for more than 30 years.

The value of all projects in the Concept is about BGN 43 million. This was announced by the regional governor Julian Lekov during the public discussion in Botevgrad today.

“Six months ago, we saw an opportunity to be a beneficiary, as a district administration, in the Concept for Integrated Territorial Investments, as well as to give the municipalities on the territory of Sofia Region the opportunity to receive additional funding,” explained Julian Lekov. He announced that the concept has been approved at the first stage – in terms of admissibility.

Julian Lekov presented the activities planned by the regional administration in the development. One is cleaning the riverbeds, outside the urbanized areas. And the other – a major repair of the “Rudinata” hut, after which it will be handed over to the Botevgrad Municipality for management, the regional governor announced. The value of the basic repair of the tourist site and the accompanying infrastructure amounts to about BGN 440,000.

The activity with which the Road Infrastructure Agency participates in the Concept is the repair of the Zlatish Pass /Road II-37/, which has been closed to traffic for years. This was announced by Nikolina Chapanova – representative of API. She also announced that a technical project has been prepared, which envisages bringing the road to the required gauge G8, in order to be normally passable when passing heavy trucks.

“The needs of the republican road network, which is 20 thousand kilometers, are countless. However, when a project enters European funding, it means that it has a strictly regulated term and has secured funds, i.e. at the moment, the opportunity is to continue upwards together with the partners and the activities that have been foreseen by the Regional Administration, on the one hand, and on the other hand – the Municipality of Botevgrad and our other partners – the Municipality of Etropole and the Municipality of Zlatitsa, to be implemented”, said the representative of the API .

Outside the topic of the public discussion, Nikolina Chapanova announced that she has signed a contract with the project contractor for the construction of a noise barrier on the “Hemus” highway above the Zelin villa area.

“These are projects that cannot be financed in other ways. Therefore, I thank the Regional Administration and the Regional Information Center for giving us the opportunity to participate in the Concept together with other municipalities,” said the Deputy Mayor of Botevgrad Municipality, Rumen Hristov. He gave the floor to Gergana Nikolova – head of the “Management of Projects and Programs” department, who announced that the Municipality of Botevgrad participates in two main activities. In the field of tourism, it is planned to create a suburban park – an area for recreation and events in the Zelin villa area. The improvement of the pedestrian tourist route from Zelin to the “Rudinata” hut is included as a sub-activity. The route is about 10 kilometers long and currently there are no recreation areas along it.

The other activity included in the Concept is the cleaning of the 12 riverbeds that are in the urbanized territory of the Botevgrad municipality and strengthening and improving the hydraulic conductivity of the Novachenka and Cheshkovitsa rivers.