Sofia, Bulgaria: Yordanka Fandakova, mayor of Sofia, informed that in the next five weeks, the Municipality of Sofia will plant 20,000 oak saplings as part of the Sofia New Forest initiative.
She said, “We are planting 137 acres of new forest in Negovan. Together with 2,500 volunteers last year, we managed to reforest almost 50 acres and are still going”.
Fandakova emphasizes that anyone who wants to participate in planting the green belt of a forest around Sofia can participate every Saturday and Sunday until May 14.
Organized groups can also grow during the week with the help of the Forests and Lands municipal enterprise, which is responsible for afforestation.
She explains that Sofia’s Municipality started planting a green belt of new forests around Sofia in 2017. The first New Forest was in the Sukhodol landfill next to the old city landfill, and there is already a beautiful young forest with over 100,000 trees.
Mayor Fandakova also appreciates Forestry University Sofia and the mayor of the region- Daniela Raycheva, for helping them in their vast project of conservating the environment.
She also thanked the mayor of Negovan, Valentin Pavlov, the deputy Mayor Desislava Bileva and the team of the municipal enterprise, which will plant another 38,000 trees around Sofia this spring.
The Mayor of Sofia also remarked that on April 4, the Sofia Municipality began the construction of the breakthrough on the Blvd. Philip Kutev from the street “Silver” to the intersection with Blvd. “Simeonovsko Shose” and Blvd. “G. M. Dimitrov”.
These are 1.2 kilometres of the utterly new boulevard, a vital part of the third city ring, which will help sensitively unload traffic in the southern neighbourhoods.
Throughout the section, the Municipality also reserves the route for constructing a tram line, providing primary transport links and connectivity to all adjoining neighbourhoods.
Fandakova highlights that securing construction took time because of the hundreds of private properties within the range of the route that the Municipality managed to acquire.
Unfortunately, in most cases, this goes through temporary court proceedings. The Municipality remain to solve the issue with only two private properties on the extension of the Blvd. “T. Kableshkov”.