GROUNDBREAKING
Plovdiv mayor Ivan Chomakov presided at a groundbreaking ceremony for the Kouklen and Pazardjishko boulevards on September 25. The reconstruction, worth 6.5 million leva, will be fully financed by the state budget, Plovdiv municipality said. While Kouklen Chausse will be extended, the Pazardjishko road have a new roundabout built, as well as undergoing general repairs.

ACADEMICS ON STRIKE
About 90 per cent of the Plovdiv-based academic institutions joined the national teachers' strike. Sixty of the 78 schools went on strike, and 40 of the 60 kindergartens in the region. The teachers’ labour union collectively accused the country’s Prime Minister, Education Department and the heads of regional inspectorates of transgressing the Strike Act by allegedly illegally pressuring directors into curtailing protest actions. The teachers union demanded a 100 per cent salary increase, and that five per cent of the state budget be assigned to education, as well as better organisation in the management of education at all levels.

NEW CHURCH
The dean of Plovdiv Medical University, Associate Professor Georgi Paskalev, will take part in the groundbreaking ceremony for a new church, to be named after Saint George the Victorious. It will be  in the garden outside the Children’s Clinic on Vassil Aprilov Boulevard. The entire construction and the landscaping of the adjoining space will be financed through donations. The church will be built on 40 sq m and the height of its dome will be 8.4m.

DOUBLE DECKERS
Plovdiv is the second city, after Varna, to add double decker buses to the city’s public transportation fleet. The MAN buses have been operating since mid-September. Unlike the pure-yellow buses in Varna, those in Plovdiv are adorned with city symbols – the Ancient Theatre, the Old City, buildings from the Main Street, among others.

MONUMENTAL MASKS
Apathy kills. This is the name of an initiative by the Green Tigers youth environmental organisation, which put oxygen masks on the faces of Milyo Voivoda, Giuro Mihailov and other monuments in Plovdiv. The action aims to raise citizens’ awareness of the environmental problems of the city. Unless measures are taken, Plovdiv is set to suffer an environmental catastrophe, the activists said. According to them, Plovdiv has 30 times less green spaces than its peer European cities. However, the city suffers climatic changes year-round because of chaotic construction work.