Sofia mayor Boiko Borissov attended the groundbreaking of a pilot modular kindergarten in the village of Kazichene near the city on May 14. The kindergarten, designed to accomodate 50 children, is the first that will be built using pre-fab kits.

The City Hall plans to build more kindergartens from pre-fab kits, believing that to be the solution to the acute shortage of child-care facilities in the city.

The number of places in Sofia kindergartens is some 5000 smaller than the number of children in the Bulgarian capital. With 44 facilities closed in the city over the past 18 years, municipal authorities have struggled to open enough new kindergartens to take in all the children in the rapidly growing city.

Construction will be carried out by Prime Production, using the designs of architecture firm LP Consult, in co-operation with German chemicals giant BASF.

During the groundbreaking event, Borissov told reporters that City Hall would allocate enough money to finish the construction of another kindergarten in the village, municipality spokesperson Nikolay Bonev told The Sofia Echo.