Bulgaria is the first Danube country to have an administrative and operational center for vessel traffic monitoring, said the Minister of Transport, Information Technology and Communications Ivaylo Moskovski during the launching ceremony of the BULRIS system. The event was attended by Prime Minister Boyko Borisov, the Mayor of Rousse Plamen Stoilov, the Chairman of the Committee on Transport, Information Technologies and Communications of the National Assembly Grozdan Karadjov, the Director of the Customs Agency Vanyo Tanov, the Director General of Bulgarian Ports Infrastructure company Angel Zaburtov, representatives of the central and local authorities, guests and citizens of Rousse and other officials. 

As of today we have a working river information center with 23 nodes located along the river providing access to all state institutions, also said Minister Moskovski.

Minister Moskovski added that the system deployed today, is equivalent to the traffic towers in Varna and Burgas, which were commissioned a month ago.

With the establishment of the river information system in the Bulgarian part of the Danube some modern electronic navigation will be carried out, which is already common in maritime transport. In this way the communication between ships and the coast authorities serving shipping will no longer be carried via radio, telephony, visual surveillance and other traditional methods.

The established telecommunication infrastructure ensures full and continuous transmission of all data along the entire Bulgarian section with the BULRIS building in Rousse being the main hub.

The implementation of the River Information System is part of the activities under the project "Establishment of River Information System in the Bulgarian part of the Danube - BULRIS". The total project cost is over 37 million Levs and its co-financing is provided by the European Regional Development Fund under Operational Program Transport 2007-2013 Priority Axis 4 "Improvement of the maritime and inland waterways."