Setting up the Geographic Information System (GIS) of the Bulgarian ports is a step towards the creation of a working e-government and a modern digital administration. That was said by the Deputy Minister of Transport, Information Technology and Communications Peter Kirov during the public presentation of the project.

The archive, which is stored by the Bulgarian Ports Infrastructure Company only for port terminal Varna – Zapad and contains more than 50 large binders of documents, was demonstrated. Now all this information is available in the system and can be loaded with only a few commands. Up to now the Geographic Information System contained information about Varna - Zapad terminal but by the end of 2014 it will cover all ports of national importance.

“Each large transport site contains a lot of information. Keep in mind that this is only the information that we hold about terminal Varna - Zapad. If we add to it the other terminals, port of Burgas and the Danube ports, the whole meeting room will not be enough for store it" said Peter Kirov. In his words the system will help the investments planning and the financial resources of the port infrastructure be more efficient.

“Bulgarian Ports Infrastructure Company manages the ownership of 15 port terminals located in the Bulgarian part of the river Danube and 11 on the Black Sea coastline. Their total area is 6 550 000 sq. meters and by the end of the year the information on them will be available via the Geographic Information system”, added Miroslav Petrov, Director General at BPIC.

Ognyan Trayanov, Executive director of TechnoLogica and members of the subcontractor team demonstrated a prototype version of the system during the event. The Deputy Ministers of Transport, Information Technology and Communications, Anton Ginev and Georgi Todorov, as well as experts from the Ministry and BPIC, representatives of partner organizations and NGOs took part in the event.

The project for the implementation of the GIS at ports is being carried out under OP “Transport” and amounts to almost 6 million levs. Bulgarian Ports Infrastructure Company is the beneficiary. The contractor is GeoPort Consortium (a joint venture of TechnoLogica EAD, Integraf Italy OOD, Geotechengineering EOOD).