A DISPUTE broke out on January 5 between the National Roads Agency and Sofia Municipality about the maintenance of the 86 km of roads in Sofia suburbs situated outside the ring road, such as Bankia, Ivanyane, Dragalevtsi, Simeonovo and others.
The problem emerged after the Roads Agency demanded that either the municipality should require the people living in those suburbs to buy vignettes for their cars, or the agency would stop maintaining the roads in the area.
By law, cars used to travel from one town to another must have vignettes.
Sofia deputy mayor Ttsvetan Ttsvetanov told a Bulgarian-language newspaper that the suburbs were part of Sofia and people should not pay for vignettes.
However, according to the Roads Agency, the suburbs were separate towns, and vignettes were mandatory.
"Since the Roads Agency continues to maintain those roads, they qualify as national roads and people should buy vignettes if they want to use them," the agency said in an open letter to the municipality.
The conflict could deepen, after the agency sent an ultimatum to Sofia Municipality to impose vignettes after January 15. The municipality's response has not been announced.
What you need to drive your car in Bulgaria in 2006:
1. It is mandatory to have Citizens Responsibility Insurance (Grazhdanska Otgovornost). This can be bought from every insurance company and is roughly 110 leva a vehicle.
2. Also mandatory for your car is that it must have passed the Technical Check-up. This is required annually and can be done by almost any repair garage. The sticker, in white, green and red, costs no more than 30 leva.
3. If your car was registered in Bulgaria before 2002 and you have not changed the licence plates since then, you must do so before March 31 2006. By law, all vehicles registered in Bulgaria must have plates with the Bulgarian flag in the left corner on a blue background.
4. If you travel outside the city with a vehicle with Bulgarian plates, you need to buy a vignette. These may be bought at Shell, OMV or Petrol fuel stations. The annual vignette for vehicles of up to eight seats is 58 leva. The monthly is 11 leva, and weekly is 4.50 leva. The vignettes are pasted on the bottom right corner on the inside of the windscreen. For foreign-registered cars, the charges are as follows: 69 euro a year, 12 euro a month and five euro a week.
5. If you drive in Sofia, take note that Vitosha Boulevard has been closed to vehicles and police are on duty to fine offenders. If you park in the streets near Vitosha, you must park only on the right-hand side of the street.
