Bulgaria to Spend BGN 53 M on Traffic Monitoring Systems

Bulgaria's Interior Ministry will spend over BGN 53 M, VAT included, on traffic surveillance.

Some BGN 39.5 M of the total will be spent on buying fixed road safety cameras and building a unified center for processing traffic violations in Sofia, according to reports of Pressa daily.

The remainder of the money will be used for printing and sending the electronic traffic ticket by post to the offender, according to an announcement of the Interior Ministry.

Initially, the project envisaged buying a total of 174 new CCTV cameras.

However, due to the recent spike in traffic accidents, traffic police experts updated the map with the dangerous road sections to include 20 extra points requiring speed control equipment.

On the basis of the update, the Interior Ministry will buy 194 cameras and a minimum of 28 fixed-portable devices which can be moved.

The data obtained through these devices will be used to issue electronic traffic tickets.

The devices will cover the main road network through which 70% of the car flow travels.

The CCTV cameras will track speeding offences and read car number plates, thereby allowing a check for a valid civil liability insurance and annual technical inspection certificate.

The Interior Ministry requires the contractor to provide cameras which can record at least 95% of the passing cars at any time of the day and in any season.

Experts point out that the equipment will not allow the detection of a wider range of violations listed in the Road Traffic Act.

Bulgaria's Traffic Police (KAT) currently has 25 fixed and 134 mobile CCTV cameras across the country worth a total of BGN 1 354 462,80, according to Pressa daily.