site.btaUPDATED Space Outside BTA Building to Be Transformed into Green, Accessible, Safe Pedestrian Zone

The space outside the BTA building will turn into a beautiful, green, accessible and safe pedestrian zone, BTA Director General Kiril Valchev said Thursday. He presented a project titled "Green BTA - Face of Sofia", funded by Beautiful Bulgaria project.  

“For our team the Beautiful Bulgaria project is a way to support socially responsible administrations, representatives of small and medium-sized businesses in Bulgaria, to work for the renewal and improvement of the public environment and social infrastructures," said Labour Minister Ivanka Shalapatova. The project is an instrument for a positive impact on unemployment, as the recruitment of unemployed people to carry out approved activities is one of the conditions set in the programme itself, Shalapatova pointed out.

The parking area will be improved, but pedestrian spaces will also be provided.

"The current parking lot - in front of the BTA building, which has capacity for 28 cars - will be transformed into a public green space,” Valchev said, adding that a new car park will be built for guests and employees of the BTA, which will have two separate areas, one with 23 parking spaces for visitors and the other with 17 spaces for staff cars. "We want the building itself to become 'green', to have a contemporary look, building on the wonderful 1960s architecture - the iconic staircase and spaces. We want to turn the space in front of the building into a place for the presentation of symbols, even a place for 3D mapping, where we can present different countries and their symbols", he said.

The BTA Director General said that so far, a technical energy passport of the building has been made and noted that the building is very energy intensive. "The agency's building is currently energy class B, with the possibility of becoming class A", he stated, saying that BTA's archive containing all newsletters from 1898 to the present, will be moved and is about to be digitized. "BTA's servers are already in the Information Service's data centres and the agency's information is stored in the best way", Valchev assured.

“We decided to fix the backyard first, which will allow us to arrange the space in front of the building much better, then we prepared technical designs for the space behind the building and for an external elevator,” he said. “We then submitted a project to Beautiful Bulgaria to help with the funding for the improvements of the space in the front, which was approved. We then put out a tender for the supply and installation of an external lift and it is now in the process of selecting a contractor,” Valchev added. “We have placed the tender and are awaiting the delivery of 30 electric vehicles which we will be using in Sofia and in the country where the agency has correspondents.”

The total cost of the project for the renovation of space outside of the building is BGN 255,381, of which BGN 114,921 are provided by the Beautiful Bulgaria project and BGN 140,460 are financed from the BTA budget. The project is expected to be completed in December 2023.

Valchev thanked the Ministry of Regional Development and Public Works, the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy - the previous Minister Lazar Lazarov, as well as the current one - Ivanka Shalapatova, and the Sredets borough Mayor Traycho Traykov for their support.

Sofia Regional Governor Mitko Mihailov said he has been invited many times to see the space that is to be changed. “The project is much nicer than I imagined,” he noted.

Sredets Mayor Traycho Traykov pointed out that only people who have not dealt with such procedures do not understand how much work has been done. He congratulated BTA Director General Kiril Valchev, as well as all the participants in the Labour Ministry’s programme.

The project proposals approved for implementation under the Beautiful Bulgaria programme this year are worth BGN 12.1 million, of which BGN 5 million are under the project and BGN 7.1 million are co-financed by the beneficiaries. The environment in schools, cultural institutions, buildings where administrative services, social services, health care and sports opportunities are provided will be improved through Beautiful Bulgaria.

The other added value is the positive impact on the labour market, which is particularly felt in smaller communities, the Labour Minister noted. With the implementation of the 47 approved project proposals, over 500 people are expected to be employed in the construction sector, of which 189 are registered with the Labour Office directorates. By introducing 15 qualification training courses, over 180 unemployed people will be trained, which will increase their chance to have an active realization on the labour market, Shalapatova added and continued: “I have no doubt that at the end of the BTA project you will convince us that when we are together we can make the environment much better for people.”