13 December 2018 - Road infrastructure has never seen more investments in the history of Montenegro. Last year, around 47 million EUR was spent on roads.
“When I started serving this function, the greatest challenges for me were the motorway and the Montenegro Airlines. We have zero tolerance for the quality of works on the motorway. This is the most difficult section in Europe. The complete loop will not be constructed, only the access road. We will complete the water supply along the entire route of the motorway. Permanent electricity supply is another important segment of this project. Apart from the motorway, we are working on the remaining road network. From the north to the south,” said the Minister of Transport, Osman Nurković.
As he says, almost 95 km of roads were reconstructed in two years. Speaking of the motorway, he said that the Government was looking for the modalities for the continuation of the Bar-Boljare motorway (second section). He added that 17 projects on the railway were being implemented.
Nurković also noted Montenegro Airlines was a big challenge.
“It was just a matter of a say when it would stop working, but we are determined to help them. The company survived. If it went out of business, we would be faced with serious consequences. However, we managed to rationalize it and eliminate the unnecessary expenses. One of the options is that the Government recovers the company. The other is to privatize it. The third option is a liquidation,” said the Minister. Some decision about the future of this company will have to be rendered in the forthcoming days said Nurković.
“Current situation is such that the airports do not satisfy the needs since a huge number of passengers is interested in Montenegro. There are so many shortcomings. We must improve the situation and extend the capacities. That can be done by somebody who has money and knowledge. We gave very serious requirements that the concessionaire will have to fulfill,” said Nurković.
He expects that the Government will soon adopt the concession act and repeated that giving the Airports on concession is the most beneficial investments project for the state.
The most significant success is bringing the seamen back on the whitelist.
“Seamen were marginalized. The state has to pay much more attention to them. We have signed the agreement with Portugal, about to sign one with the Netherlands and we are planning to renew the agreement with Ukraine”, said Nurković.
Minister also said that they would not tolerate the delays in the construction of the boulevard along Donja Gorica, that is in charge of “Tehno put.”
Montenegro has recently received an additional 68.6 million EUR of non-refundable support from the EU and bilateral donors of the West Balkans Investments Framework for the implementation of four investment projects in the area of transport and the environment and the preparation of project documentation for two new projects. Read more information here.
