Authorities may start closing downtown Sofia for traffic when air polution level becomes dangerous. Photo by Nadya Kotseva (Sofia News Agency)
Authorities may start closing downtown Sofia for traffic when the level of air pollution is too high, the municipal Ecology Department said on Monday.
The department's director Petar Traikov said that the municipality installed a monitoring system at the juncture between the central Rakovski and Moskovska streets, which measures and shows information about air pollution.
"If the system shows pollution levels high above the health norms, downtown traffic may be temporary stopped, in order to improve the conditions," Traikov told reporters.
Last week, experts warned of 209.27 miligrammes of dust particles per cubic metre of the air in fog-blanketed Sofia, while the norm is 50 milligrammes.
The new system detects seven major air pollutants and officials informed that such monitors will be soon installed at other central junctures in the capital.