The Bulgarian Ports Infrastructure Company is carrying out a major upgrade of all components of BulRIS, the River Information Services system covering the Bulgarian section of the Danube. The project, launched last year, will support safer and more efficient vessel traffic management.
The upgrade will improve the reliability, security and quality of river information services by modernising the Automatic Identification System (AIS), radio relay network, surveillance cameras, radars, servers and network infrastructure.
For 11 years, BPI Co. has managed vessel traffic in the Bulgarian section of the Danube while continuously expanding and improving its digital services. The River Information Services Center in Ruse uses advanced equipment and navigation systems to collect and exchange information from vessels and other sites along the river through the BulRIS communication network. The network brings together data from 27 sites stretching from the village of Kudelin to Silistra.
BPI Co. also contributes actively to the development of the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T) on Europe’s inland waterways. Since last year, all electronic reporting for vessels on the Bulgarian section of the Danube has been carried out through CEERIS. Experts from the RIS Center Ruse are also involved in the ongoing development of EuRIS, the shared European platform providing up-to-date information on waterways, infrastructure, traffic and transport across 13 European countries.
Two services are publicly available: Vessel Traffic Visualisation (VTT) and Notices to Skippers (NtS). A separate system for tracking non-motorised vessels in Bulgarian Danube ports has also been developed to support the work of the responsible authorities.
BPI Co. keeps its information services aligned with the latest European RIS standards. Regular system upgrades improve operational efficiency, make river transport safer and more reliable, and provide better services for RIS users in Bulgaria.