March 28, 2019 - The new Harbor Act is introducing a lot of changes to meet the demands of the growing nautical tourism industry. The Director General of the Maritime Traffic Department at the Ministry of Traffic and Maritime Affairs, Vladan Radonjić, speaking on the development of nautical tourism in Montenegro, said that it significantly overruled the provisions of the applicable Harbor Act and its latest amendments from June 2013.
For the needs of complete service of foreign and domestic yachts, shipyard ports are being developed, among which Bonići Tivat and Bijela shipyards have already been proclaimed, Radonjić told CdM.
He explained that the Harbor Act introduces a new term "the city port," which recognizes the communal berths in Bar, Budva, Tivat, and Herceg Novi.
"All ports will, after the entry into force of the new law, have to cooperate with management bodies to make a plan and to pinpoint which part of the port will be the operational coastline, and what part of the port is intended for communal berths and commercial berths. At the assembly committees, there were questions as to how many berths there would be, which is very difficult to say because floating objects tied to these joints are of different dimensions and shapes. The best answer is that the Plan that will provide a part of the port for communal berths, and then the operator will determine how many berths it can have in that area. The Ministry of Transport and Maritime Affairs is essential to clearly define the area of the Operational Coast, which is embarked on the boarding and disembarking of passengers, and that the Operational Coast is free and accessible to all maritime passenger transport facilities, especially during the summer season. I believe that these changes and improvements are done very well and will improve nautical tourism in Montenegro," said Radonjić.
He adds that through this Code, Nautical Maritime Ports have so far been recognized only as ports that receive yachts and boats. However, this possibility is now extended to other navigable facilities, so if a port of nautical tourism is interested in expanding its activities to passenger ships, the Law allows this with the additional approval of the Managing Authority or the Public Company in ports of local importance.
"Indeed, there is already interest in the nautical port-marina Porto Montenegro, so that they also deal with passenger traffic from passenger ships, and that the entry into force of this Law remains to address the Sea Property to Expand Activities. I am convinced that in this way it will be significant that in Boka Bay we do not have only one port for passenger ships, but that the pressure from Kotor will be allocated to another port in the bay," said Radonjić
He said that the request of the operator to allow the port of Zelenika to enable passenger traffic was not approved because it doesn't meet all the standards. The Port of Zelenika is recognized as a trade port in the Coastal Development Plan for Montenegro, Radonjić pointed out.
