Kalotina

The road through Kalotina to Serbia is unpassable, announced the Union of Bulgarian Drivers.

The highway from Niš through Aleksinac in the direction of Belgrade is impossible to use.

Due to a chain crash in which at least 20 cars were involved, the highway Belgrade-Niš has been blocked. At least 18 people have been injured.

Over 21.5 kg of heroin were discovered by officers at the Kalotina border cross check point  during a routine check of a car with a Bulgarian registration, according to Darik radio.

 The customs officers  proceeded with a detailed check of the car after thinking that it looked suspicious.

Road haulage workers are protesting on Monday morning against what they describe as "inhumane conditions" conditions of waiting for hours to cross out of the country.

Truck drivers argue they have recently be waiting for 40 to 50 hours to cross.

Officers from the regional directorate of border police in Dragoman and Frontex officials detained 24 illegal immigrants near the Bulgarian-Serbian border.

The authorities also detained two Bulgarian citizens, one of them with a criminal record, who were transporting the migrants.

Bulgaria's Road Infrastructure Agency (RIA) received the green light from the government on Tuesday to hire contractors for the construction of a section of a motorway that will link Sofia with Kalotina crossing on the border with Serbia.

Bulgarian Border Police said on Tuesday they have prevented 310 attempts of illegal migrants to cross from Turkey over the past 24 hours.

Another 29 foreign nationals have been detained while trying to sneak into Serbia. Eighteen of them were apprehended south of Kalotina border checkpoint. None of them carried identity documents.

Bulgaria's government plans to build 635 kilometers of new motorways and repair 17,000 of existing main and secondary roads until 2022.

Two Bulgarian border policemen were detained on Monday on suspicions of having accepted bribes offered by a trafficker of migrants across the border with Serbia.

According to the prosecutor's office, during their duty on September 1 the two police officers accepted BGN 700 in bribes offered by a Bulgarian citizen transporting three illegal immigrants.

Bulgaria's budget deficit as of October reached BGN 1.76 B, said the Finance Ministry.

For comparison, in September it was BGN 1.47 B.

The Finance Ministry data shows that the vast part of the deficit is formed by a shortage in EU funds - a total of BGN 1.066 B.

The budget revenue was BGN 24.021 B, the expenditure was BGN 25.78 B. The fiscal reserve was BGN 8.7 B.

The motorway section from Kalotina to road junction Hrabarsko may be completed in 3 years, according to Lazar Lazarov, Chair of the Management Board of Bulgaria's Road Infrastructure Agency.

Lazarov, as cited by Monitor daily, explained that the 32-kilometer-long motorway section covered almost fully the motorway section from Sofia to the Bulgaria-Serbia border.