Bulgarian Ports
Infrastructure Company

The Minister of Transport, Information Technology and Communications Ivaylo Moskovski and Director General of Bulgarian Ports Infrastructure Company Anguel zabourtov  will officially open the new building of the Coastal center in Varna tomorrow (August 15, 2015) at 11:30 a.m., when is the feast of the sea capital.

The building is constructed under the project Vessel Traffic Management Information System – phase 3 (VTMIS), co-funded by ERDF on Operational Programme “Transport”. The Contracting Authority is Bulgarian Ports Infrastructure Company.

The building is located in Asparuhov Park. Besides a port facility, the Coastal center is an architectural landmark because of its creative vision. A vessel traffic management center is located at Varna Coastal center – VTS Center Varna, to monitor and direct the ship traffic north of Cape Emine.

The building will host the operational center of the Bulgarian part of the Global Maritime Distress and Safety System - GMDSS Operating Center. From the operational center will be carried out all communications, commitment of Bulgaria under the Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS Convention). The center has television and thermal imaging cameras, stations for meteorological surveillance and other special equipment. In cases of emergency in Coastal center Burgas, the Coastal center Varna will be ready to assume operations on Black sea coast.

The Coastal center in Burgas that was officially inaugurated a week ago on 08.08.2015 by the Prime Minister of the Republic of Bulgaria Boyko Borissov, the Minister of Transport, Information Technology and Communications Ivaylo Moskovski, the Mayor of Burgas Dimitar Nikolov and the Director General of BPI Co. Anguel Zabourtov, performs the same functions as the one in Varna. There is continuous interaction between the two centers have.

The construction of the two buildings for management and information services for shipping in the Bulgarian Black Sea coast began in April last year. The value of the contract for design and construction of the two coastal centers is 3 767 700 BGN excluding VAT, with contractor Consortium "Midia – Diana Commerce". Supply and installation of electronic equipment, hardware and software was carried out by Consortium “Translink“, and comes to amount of 27 735 686,00 BGN excluding VAT.  The total cost of the entire project is 39 145 117,96 BGN.

With the successful completion of the project, Bulgaria will be one of the first Member States to fulfill the requirements of the European Union concerning the safety of shipping and the EU Directive requiring electronic processing of shipping documents.