For the purpose of building the first line Belgrade metro, the state of Serbia will buy three plots in the complex Old sugar mills, with a total area of slightly more than 10.000 square meters. The owner of the land is the company "Vrenje", in which one of the co-owners is businessman Željko Drčelić, also known for his earlier involvement in the Development Fund, close cooperation with state structures and participation in privatizations.
According to the documents published by the Radar portal, the state will pay a little more than five million euros for this purchase, which has caused many questions in the public. It is particularly striking that last year an eight times larger area of land at the same location – more than 80.000 square meters – was sold for almost the same amount. At that time, the owners were companies associated with the well-known businessman Zvonko Gobeljić, the wife of Minister Zorana Mihajlović.
This difference in price has led to doubts about the method of assessing the value of expropriated land, as well as potential abuses related to the use of public money. Although the City of Belgrade and the Ministry of Construction claim that everything is done in accordance with the Law on Expropriation and based on the assessment of court experts, part of the professional public questions how it is possible for the price of land in the same location to change multiple times in such a short period of time.
The plots that the state is now buying are located on the route of the future first line of the metro, between Karaburma and Makiš polje, which makes them strategically important. However, critics warn that from the beginning the metro project has been implemented non-transparently, with route changes and priorities that look more like the interests of investors and land owners than the real needs of citizens and public transport.
This is not the first time that names associated with the authorities or circles close to them have been mentioned in the context of land expropriation and resale in Belgrade. Precisely for this reason, the opposition and non-governmental organizations are calling for the urgent introduction of independent supervision over expropriation procedures, in order to avoid misuse of state funds and preserve citizens' trust in the legality and purpose of the Belgrade metro project.
Source: Radar
