Almost everything that we started from January 16, 2025 in the Ministry of Transport and Communications (MTC) and is in the process of implementation is very important. That is why it is important who will sit in the chair of the minister and the entire government. It is important for us that the reforms continue, Minister Grozdan Karadzhov said in an interview with BNR.
"When there was talk about the PVU a year ago, there was talk about funds that we would not receive. The reform for railway transport had not been started and they were at risk. Now the investment that we will receive in the railway sector is twice as much. We have signed a contract for 60 new trains and everyone is questioning whether the reform will take place. The tender for a railway passenger service has been concluded and I hope I will have time to sign the contract with the private carrier", commented the resigned Minister of Transport.
And he specified that a single ticket is also being introduced and telemetry means are being added to see which carrier is transporting how many passengers.
"We opened the door for two new bridges on the Danube - at Silistra and Nikopol, we turned connectivity from being a problem for Bulgaria to becoming a European policy and this happened with an agreement. The other is for Corridor 8 - we signed a contract with Nikolovski for the tunnel between the two countries, this must be continued, passed for ratification through the National Assembly and the committee that will be responsible for the project must meet. We have digitized driver training", the Minister of Transport spoke with satisfaction about the work done under his management of MTS.
Grozdan Karadjov admitted that he was proud and thanked the employees of "Bulgarian Posts", because for the third day they coped with their task of exchanging leva into euros and "they did it smoothly and quickly":
"So far there has been no serious signal. There is one misunderstanding that I want to dispel - we, the post offices, exchange only in places where there are no bank branches. And the list of post offices is on the Bulgarian Post website."
He promised to have an increased police presence around post offices for the next 6 months so that elderly and lonely people in villages and small towns do not suffer from robberies and stalking by fraudsters.
"In 2 days alone, over 10 million leva have already been exchanged in post offices. The only problem I noticed was that in some places the euro ran out and the employees are taking requests so that people can exchange their own funds.
We should not hide that there are a number of setbacks in this process, but we are reacting. Today, in a village near Pavlikeni, people were left without pensions because the postal employee retired. We reacted and tomorrow there will be someone to pay the pensions and additional funds will be provided so that people can change if they want to", commented Grozdan Karadjov. He said that the problem of charging a fee of 15 leva at a bank when exchanging levs for euros has been removed. "This is unacceptable, we reacted immediately", he said.
"At the moment there is no serious problem, and I must say that the media has turned out to be the most, the most important partner in order to correct minor and not minor mistakes, we learn from you and react immediately", the minister praised.
He commented on the increased price of the Annual Technical Inspection:
"Some of the centers raised the price to 130 leva because they were not in the light. All our activities led to enlightenment and they had to pay taxes and raised the price by 35%. This is part of getting the economy back on track. Each service decides on its own prices and MTS cannot set the prices of GTP. There is control and it is carried out by the CPC, but so that uncommercial practices are not applied. When it comes to price, everyone chooses a service according to their pocket, this is the only regulator."