B92 investigates disputed concession contract

BELGRADE -- Besides financing, the Horgoš-Požega highway concessionaires have yet to even confirm the main project.

B92 investigates disputed concession contract

BELGRADE -- Besides financing, the Horgoš-Požega highway concessionaires have yet to even confirm the main project.

Close the entire text of the article here

According to an earlier plan, the concessionaire was supposed to start charging for highway tolls at the end of April.

Does this mean that the concessionaire was planning to undertake the entire job, including the toll revenues, without any financial and technical guarantees that construction would even start?

Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS) and New Serbia (NS) ministers claim that the Democratic Party (DS) and G17 plus are trying to obstruct “the job of the century” for political reasons.

“The work was supposed to begin on Wednesday, preparations have been made, the route has been agreed, the agreement has been printed out for certification for the property-legal relations to be settled. The biggest project, maybe in the history of Serbia, is stopped, outvoted in the government for purely political reasons. There is no reason for such a good project to be stopped,” Infrastructure Minister Velimir Ilić claimed.

According to information uncovered by the B92 investigative team, the concessionaire did not confirm the main project for construction by April 1, the date when the job should officially have begun.

This was confirmed by Deputy Prime Minister Božidar Đelić.

“According to our information – they have not. Not only that, but none of the technical things have been done either, and when you add that the financial matters haven’t been taken care of, you see that there is no reason to put a shovel in the ground in any part of Serbia, other than for a pre-election photo opportunity,” said Đelić.

He said that the construction of the highway would not be able to start without all the technical documentation being submitted.

“That means that construction cannot start. In other words, even if the financial parts were taken care of on March 31, construction would not be able to begin for another three, four, five, six months time,” he said.