Bulgarian Ports
Infrastructure Company

The ship traffic management in the Bulgarian part of the Black Sea celebrates its quarter century today. The modern navigation system was developed by the Bulgarian Ports Infrastructure Company (BPI Co.) under projects in four phases and actually started with the Varna Initial System project, being launched on September 17, 1999.

Bulgaria is the first country in the Black Sea region to have built such an integrated information system, consisting of numerous sites with modern remotely controlled equipment, electronic navigation system Navi Harbour, digital information system for electronic document circulation National Center for E-documentation in Maritime Transport, digital information system for planning the maneuvers in MOVER ports, the Bulgarian segment of the global disaster and safety system GMDSS and two coastal centers for navigation management and information services. The digitization of information enables automatic electronic reporting to the Europe-wide SafeSeaNet system and machine processing capabilities and thus completely eliminates paper documents.

Thanks to the integrated information system for ship traffic management and information service for shipping, the Bulgarian Ports Infrastructure Company not only provides services for information provision and navigation support for ship traffic in the maritime spaces of the Republic of Bulgaria, but also improves the safety of shipping and the environmental protection. In addition, on its page, the Vessel Traffic Services Authority (VTS Authority) provides free information to the general public about the meteorological situation and the state of civil shipping.

Current data from the system show an increase in vessel arriving to the ports of Burgas and Varna during the first six months of 2024 compared to the same period of the previous year. A total of over 2000 ships have visited the two seaports since the beginning of 2024.