July 13 (SeeNews) - The municipal council of Bulgarian capital Sofia has decided to allow the city's Urban Mobility Centre to seek a 15 million levs ($8.7 million/7.7 million euro) bank loan in order to cover losses caused by the coronavirus outbreak during the last several months.
Through the provision of the loan, the municipality-owned company, which is in charge of the management of public transport and the collection of parking fees, will be able to service its debts to transport operators serving the municipality and reduce losses, the Sofia municipal council said in a video file published on its Facebook page last week.
Sofia Urban Mobility Centre will apply for a loan from state-owned Bulgarian Development Bank (BDB), local business daily Capital reported over the weekend.
Last month, Sofia mayor Yordanka Fandakova said that the public transport companies serving the population of Sofia have incurred losses of about 15.5 million levs during the two-month state of emergency declared by the government on March 13 in order to limit the spread of the coronavirus. Later, the state of emergency was replaced by a state of epidemic emergency, which is expected to last until the end of July.
The loss registered by Sofia Urban Mobility Centre totals about 24 million levs, Fandakova said in a video file posted on the website of local TV broadcaster bTV last month.
(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)