Montenegro, Struggles of the north: Can hotels be built without proper infrastructure?

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In the municipality of Kolašin, as part of the economic citizenship project, nine luxury hotels are being built in locations that are not equipped with communal infrastructure, which, according to the investors, is a problem, because hotels without infrastructure cannot be put into operation.

The representatives of the Municipality, whose new administration led by Mayor Vladimir Martinović, found only one million EUR in the coffers after coming to power at the end of last year, state that they need millions of sums of money, which they do not have, to solve this problem. Together with the investors, they call on the Government to urgently adopt criteria for the distribution of the money that has been generated within the framework of this project for the purpose of less developed municipalities from the north, writes Vijesti.

According to the data of the Investment Agency, from the beginning of the implementation of the economic citizenship program on January 1, 2019 and ending on December 30 last year, EUR 72.40 million was collected from investors for the purpose of developing less developed municipalities. That money has not been used to date and was transferred from the account of the Investment Agency to this year’s state budget.

The representatives of the Ministry of Economic Development do not have a clear answer to the question of when they will adopt the criteria for the distribution of this money and what the Government and this department have done so far regarding this problem and when it can be solved.

In the northern region, as part of the economic citizenship project, ten hotels are being built, nine of which are in Kolašin, which should improve the tourist offer of this city.

– For most of the buildings that are built from economic citizenship, the entire infrastructure is needed, which includes traffic roads, the construction of atmospheric and sewage networks, water and electricity networks or the construction of additional substations that will serve to power those buildings, considering that they are all built on spaces that are not communally equipped or are not sufficiently equipped to meet the needs of future buildings – said Martinović.

He added that they found slightly more than one million EUR in the municipal coffers after taking over the government, that they regularly repay the loan obligations that arose from the previous period and that one loan that the Municipality took in 2015 will be repaid by 2035.
Mrtinović stated that a lot of money is needed for the construction of the necessary infrastructure, and that it is impossible to talk about precise figures considering that it is about millions of dollars.

– Regarding the project documentation, the largest number of investors decided to help themselves and the municipality by donating the necessary technical documentation, given that the municipality must, in accordance with the capital budget, solve problems that are a priority for the entire city, such as water supply, garages and the like – explained Martinović.

He said that the previous local government, when it comes to this infrastructure, made decisions for objects of general interest, which somewhat bypassed certain obstacles that investors encountered, while the municipality had no significant activities in terms of technical documentation.

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