July 5 (SeeNews) - Bulgaria's Smolyan municipality has signed a 9.6 million ($5.5 million/4.9 million euro) contract with the environment ministry for implementing a project for improvement of air quality, the ministry said.
Funding for the project is provided by the EU under Operational Programme Environment 2014-2020, the ministry said in a statement earlier this week.
The project envisages the reduction of fine particulate matter (PM10) and nitrogen oxides derived from the use of coal and wood for domestic heating, subsequently leading to improved air quality for the approximately 36,000 residents of Smolyan municipality.
The project will be implemented in two stages for a period of 53 months.