Sofia prohibits old cars from entering the center again from December 1

The Metropolitan Municipality will once again prohibit the most polluting cars from entering the city center from December 1, but this year, apart from cars from the first ecological group in the so-called the "small ring" will not be allowed and those from the second, reported the local administration.

The "Small Ring" zone is closed between the boulevards "Vasil Levski", "Patriarch Evtimii", "Gen. Skobelev", "Slivnitsa" and "Opalchenska" street.

At a briefing, Deputy Mayor for Ecology Nadezhda Bobcheva recalled that the ordinance on low-emission zones in Sofia was in force for three months from December 1 of this year. until February 28 of this year Now it comes into effect again as a measure against air pollution, Dir.bg reports.

The purpose of the low-emission zone is to regulate car traffic, so this year the ban will be in effect from December 1, 2024 to February 28, 2025.

The first category includes diesel vehicles that are over 20 years old and gasoline vehicles over 30 years old. In the second category are diesel cars between 17 and 22 years old and gasoline cars between 26 and 28 years old.

Last winter, about 38,000 cars were affected by the ban on passing through the "Small Ring". The ordinance on low-emission zones, which was prepared by the team of the now former mayor Yordanka Fandakova, received the necessary support in the Metropolitan Municipal Council after a serious discussion between GERB and "Democratic Bulgaria". However, there were actually no sanctions for non-compliance with the ban, due to a non-working system for reporting the stickers and the sluggish work of the metropolitan municipality.

From January 1 next year, the restriction on the so-called domestic heating zone in 9 metropolitan areas - "Sredets", "Krasno selo", "Iskar", "Ilinden", "Studentski", "Oborishte", "Vazrazhdane", "Lozenets", "Triaditsa". About 1,700 households will be affected by this measure.

The deputy mayor for ecology called on all those who heat with solid fuel to replace the stoves with other appliances, and the citizens who live in the so-called a small ring in the center of Sofia to receive their sticker from the Center for Urban Mobility, so that they will not be fined in the upcoming season in connection with the entry into force of the low-emission zone.

Iliyan Pavlov, deputy mayor for transport, announced that an information campaign will start tomorrow in the whole of Sofia regarding the low-emission zone. Nikolai Nedelkov, director of the Metropolitan Inspectorate, pointed out that twice as many air pollution inspections were carried out this year than last year. With more than 370,000 decares washed last year, we have increased the territory by more than 10% this year, Nedelkov pointed out. According to him, for air pollution, service stations, car washes and other potential air pollutants are mainly checked, more than 1000 reports have been drawn up.

The city transport registers about 90 thousand new passengers in public transport, Deputy Mayor for Transport Iliyan Pavlov also noted.