Photo: FoNetThe state is investing another 10 million euros for the construction of a bus station in New Belgrade. Deadlines and budgets were breached 8-9 times, so she represents our Shkodër on Bojana, Nikola Jovanović from the Center for Local Self-Government told Vreme.
The Ministry of Economy has been allocated 1,2 billion dinars from the current budget reserve for the continuation of the construction of a new bus station in Block 42 in New Belgrade.
"According to the original plan, the entire project was supposed to cost 20 million euros, and now we see that it will be at least 3 times more, while nothing has been completed yet." And when the station is put into operation, we will be waiting for the station building for a long time. All in all, a shame", he says for "Vreme" Nikola Jovanovic from the Center for Local Self-Government.
As can be seen from the decision published in the Official Gazette, the money from the budget reserve was originally intended for the Ministry of Economy, but for the program of attracting foreign investments. However, now that money is transferred to the current budget reserve, and then redistributed to the Ministry of Economy, but to provide the missing funds needed to continue the implementation of the "Project for the construction of a new bus station in Block 42 in New Belgrade", it says New economy.
Planning and execution fiasco
"The construction of the new bus station has been a planning and execution fiasco, ever since the first concrete was driven in the spring of 2018. Deadlines and budgets were breached 8-9 times, so she represents our Skadar on Bojana", says Jovanović.
He states that everything was done badly regarding the new bus station.
"If it has already been decided that it will be built through PPP, then the partner should have been chosen at an international competition." A better solution was for the City to build the station itself from the loan. This is how we got the worst possible partner, the half-state, half-family company "BAS", and the City proved to be incompetent in terms of management and planning for large projects", explains Jovanović.
The Center for Local Self-Government states that strategic questions remain - why is there no metro station planned in this complex and how will travelers from Serbia and abroad cross into the old part of the city, when the bridges are a huge problem, in every sense.
Deadline after deadline
The contract for the construction of the new main bus station in Belgrade was signed almost seven years ago, and the foundation stone in Block 42 in New Belgrade was laid in 2018. The original deadlines for the completion of the works were 2019, then 2020, then the city's chief urban planner Marko Stojčić said in April 2021. that Belgrade will get a new bus station by the end of that year.
"There were a lot of obstacles, we also had minor changes to the Detailed Regulation Plan so that traffic could function, but now we have a final solution for BAS and it is finally nearing its end," explained Stojčić on that occasion.
In November, the president of the Provisional Authority of the City of Belgrade, Aleksandar Šapić, visited the works on the reconstruction of the Belgrade bus station.
"Approximately two months ago, we informed the public that we had finally untied the 'Gordi Knot' that had been tied for the past five years and that we were able to start the new works at the bus station, which started back in 2017. Then they were interrupted and essentially did not resume until this summer. Now everything is going in its own way and we expect that in January 2024 we will be able to transfer all bus traffic here," said Šapić on that occasion.
Deadlines are breaking the budget.
In June, the joint-stock company Belgrade Bus Station (BAS) was approved to take an investment loan of 915 million dinars (about 7,8 million euros) through the Development Fund, based on the conclusion of the Government of Serbia.
Since the financial resources could not be secured from the regular operations of BAS, at the end of May last year, an application was submitted to the Ministry of Economy for the purpose of taking an investment loan in the amount of 915 million dinars for the completion of the first phase of the construction of the bus station complex in New Belgrade, as can be seen from the published decision on the BAS website.
In addition to the investment loan from the Development Fund, in October, the BAS shareholders' meeting made a decision on the disposal of high-value assets, approving the conclusion of a loan agreement of 12 million euros with Bank "Poštanska štedionica" for the construction of office space.
Ten promissory notes and first-order mortgages on the building under construction, the platform area, and the station platform are listed as security for this loan agreement.
From the minutes of the session at which this decision was adopted, it can be seen that BAS actually replaced "Poštanska štedionica" with "Komercijalna banka", with which it previously contracted a loan of 2019 million euros for the bus station in 12.
From the same minutes, it can be concluded that "Komercijalna banka" gave half of that loan, while the other half was never realized.
An agreement was concluded between the City of Belgrade and BAS ad on the joint construction of a bus station in block 42, which defined that the City of Belgrade provides the location, and that BAS is the investor that will fully finance the development of project and technical documentation and finance the construction of the new integrated bus station complex.
The bus station in Novi Beograd's Block 42, as previously announced, will have 44 departures, 12 arrivals, as well as nine arrival and departure platforms.
The completion of its construction will also mean the complete transfer of intercity bus traffic from the center of Belgrade, i.e. the shutdown of the existing hub in Karađorđeva street.
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