Traffic jams, the amount of cars in the narrow streets, the "silly" amount of money and the lack of discipline displayed by those living in Bulgaria's capital were what caused the city to be blocked by 30 cm of snow that fell on January 2.

On January 9, the concessionaire for cleaning the city held a press conference in which a demand for more money was not directly made, but everything said was intended to testify of this, mediapool.bg said.

Despite the difficulties to deal with their obligations, management of the three companies Dits, Volf and Chistota Sofia, all owned by Equest, did not show any intentions to pull out of the concession.

Managing director of Equest, Georgi Kroumov said that the Equest Fund was entirely public and managed the investments of around 50 different institutions. According to Kroumov, the concession to clean Bulgaria's capital was a "small project" for Equest and information about it was available to anyone who had an interest.

Having just said that, he refused to reply to a series of questions, including questions about clearing the snow in Sofia, mediapool.bg said. He refused to say what the concessionaires' profits were for 1000 sq m of cleaned street, what exactly would be cleaned with the new, record-high budget of 13.5 million leva in 2008 or how much the administrative expenses were.

"We have huge problems with the traffic jams in the city. Where should we shove the snow when there are cars everywhere. We cannot enter the small streets because of the parked cars. If a regular car cannot enter these streets, what should a large cleaning truck do," Kroumov said.

In accordance with current contracts, the companies did not clear the snow or ice, as they were not obliged to remove it from the city, but only shove it onto the sidewalk, mediapool.bg said.

The problem with the narrow streets was extremely serious in a number of neighbourhoods in the capital, including Redouta, Dragalevtsi, Simeonovo, Boyana and others.

Deputy mayor for transport Velizar Stoilov said that there were special machines for small areas, but at the same time, he said, people in Sofia had more freedom than discipline when it came to parking in the city.
He added that they should understand that "no one will clean anything, if everything is constantly soiled".

Equest calculated that an ideally empty Sofia, without any cars, had a total surface of 64.6 million sq m. The 30 cm of snow which fell on January 2, amounted to 1.848 million cu m of snow that would have to be cleaned if the city would be 100 per cent cleaned, according to Equest.

In Equest's calculation, the expenses would include 46.569 million leva "only for fuel". Fuel consumption had been calculated at 30 litre per 100 km, which Kroumov, in front of journalists, changed to 50 litre per 100 km. Fuel prices had been calculated against consumer prices of 2.10 leva per litre, even though the company would buy at wholesale prices, mediapool.bg said.

"We clean what we are paid to clean. If we are given a bigger task, we will be happy, because we are a commercial company and we would be working for more profit," Kroumov said.
Sofia mayor Boiko Borissov did just that, mediapool.bg said, when it increased the 2008 budget for cleaning the city by 14 million leva to 64 million leva.

Kroumov admitted that half the car-park of the three companies was not used as they were designed for much larger operations than those under the municipal concession. This however, had no influence on the work of the companies on January 2, according to Kroumov.

Deputy mayor for ecology Maria Boyadjiiska refused to comment on what Kroumov had said. "Time will tell," she said. She expressed her hope that the companies would keep their end of the "gentlemen's agreement" and install GPS systems before the end of March 2008 on all trucks, so that cleaning of the city could be followed, despite the fact that they were supposed to have done this last year already, mediapool.bg said.