The regional development ministry is preparing a brief to design and build a smart traffic system on the Trakia motorway, minister Ivan Shishkov told a parliamentary committee.

The question-and-answer session began with a minute's silence for the victims of two pile-ups on the motorway near the Zimnitsa interchange yesterday. Shishkov offered his condolences to the families of those killed.

The brief will be used to commission the design and making of the system. The money for it is in the 2027 budget, which was sent to parliament before the crashes.

"So this is an exceptional priority," the minister said.

An earlier project for such a system began in late 2016 under the Transport and Transport Infrastructure operational programme (2014-2020). The contracts were signed in 2018 and 2020 and were worth more than €3.57m (more than 7m leva).

Shishkov said the system was not finished and handed over on time, and the money spent on it is effectively lost. The contract was ended by mutual consent in April 2022.