Maritime Administration Executive Agency acquired two new barges

The specialized non-self-propelled vessels are designed to carry out rescue operations in the common Bulgarian-Romanian section of the Danube, in case of incidents and disasters and in operations to limit and eliminate spills of petroleum products and hazardous substances. The barges have specialized equipment and will be positioned in the ports of Ruse and Lom, and their scope will cover the common Bulgarian-Romanian section of the river.

The barges were presented during a ceremony today in the presence of the Executive Director of the Joint Technical Secretariat for INTERREG V-A Romania-Bulgaria Nicoleta Minku, Project Manager Rumen Nikolov, Director General of the Romanian Maritime Administration Cosmin Dumitrache, Executive Director of the Maritime Administration Capt. Ventsislav Ivanov. The godmother of the DSN-R barge with Ruse home port was the Deputy Mayor of Ruse Municipality Zlatomira Stefanova, and the Executive Director of the Association of the Danube Municipalities "Danube" Maria Tsankova of the DSN-L barge, with Lom home port.

The renewal of the vessels of the Maritime Administration Executive Agency is carried out under the Project "Improving transport safety in the common Bulgarian-Romanian section of the Danube River by improving the response to emergencies through cross-border cooperation", Danube Safety Net.

The implementation of the Danube Safety Net Project will increase the level of transport safety along the common Bulgarian-Romanian section of the Danube, by achieving better synchronization of actions in emergency situations of the two responsible institutions, improving the capacity of rescue teams and reducing disaster response time.

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The total budget of the project is EUR 5,699,612.87, of which 85% is provided by the European Regional Development Fund and the remaining 15% is national co-financing.