August 7 (SeeNews) - The Bulgarian municipalities of Plovdiv and Vidin have signed EU-funded contracts for improving their air quality with the environment ministry, worth 13.8 million levs ($7.9 million/7.0 million euro) and 12.5 million levs, respectively, the ministry said.
The projects are wholly funded under EU's Operational programme Environment 2014-2020, the ministry said in a statement last week.
The projects aim to reduce the emissions of fine particulate matter from household combustion of coal, thus improving the air quality for approximately 345,000 inhabitants of Plovdiv municipality and 52,000 inhabitants of Vidin municipality.
Works on the projects will be carried out in two stages, including analysis of the environment and replacement of solid fuel heating systems with alternative heating sources.
Both projects are expected to be completed within 52 months.
(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)