Novera will keep on cleaning four Sofia districts one of its companies has a concession on, while Sofia municipality is planning to prolong the company’s contract by one year, city hall spokesperson Tsvetelina Krusteva told The Sofia Echo on April 1.

Novera, owned by private equity firm Equest, is the holding company for three firms that have cleaning concessions in Sofia, including Wolf that had a 10-years contract with Sofia municipality to collect the refuse of Vitosha, Ovcha Koupel, Lyulin and part of Triaditza neighbourhoods.

The agreement expired on April 1, but Novera spokesperson Dimitur Dimitrov told The Sofia Echo the company was now in active talks with the city hall and within two weeks a result was expected. Dimitrov said Novera expects the city hall to include an annex to the contract prolonging the four districts’ cleaning agreement. “We do not have requests, but they have to find a legal form to solve the problem as they are the strong party,” Dimitrov said.

He explained Novera had to keep on cleaning until the city announces a competition for a new operator but the annex is necessary. However, Novera will keep on cleaning during the two weeks of uncertainty, as “if we leave these four regions, they will be covered with refuse,” Dimitrov said.

Krusteva confirmed that Sofia municipality is planning to prolong Novera contract by one year. However, it is still early to discuss the contracts of the two other Novera’s companies that clean the rest of Sofia’s districts, as the first one expires in 2009, Krusteva said.