Bulgaria's Regional Development Minister Lilyana Pavlova warned that certain regions in the country are totally unprepared for winter.

“The money for winter clearing of the roads has been spent in the summer for trimming shrubs,” she told the Nova TV national channel breakfast show. “This is why the roads are unprepared for the winter, particularly the mountain passes.”

According to Pavlova, the sum spent on “shrub trimming” was BGN 10 M.

Pavlova said the regions can be provisionally split into three categories: unprepared, partially prepared and fully prepared. In the first group are the Sofia-Region, Pernik, Pleven, Stara Zagora and Smolyan regions. Partially prepared are Plovdiv, Blagoevgrad, Burgas, Varna and Haskovo regions. Fully prepared are Vidin, Vratsa, Montana, Kurdzhali, Dobrich, Veliko Tarnovo and Silistra.

“Most critical is the condition of the Lyulin and Struma highways,” Pavlova said. “The situation there is alarming. There are 20 tonnes of the needed 5000 tonnes of salt and grit; of the needed 70 tonnes of chemicals, there is none; of the necessary 66 snow ploughs and gritting machines, there are four.”