After the tragedy at the Railway Station in Novi Sad, the information reached the public that the Prokop Railway Station also does not have a license to use it. Who is it actually being built for, what does the use permit mean and can we know which buildings do not have technical approval
After the tragedy in Novi Sad in which, as a result of the fall of the canopy at the Railway Station, 14 people died and three were seriously injured, information appeared in the public that neither Railway station Prokop does not have a license to use.
"The request of the investor Republika Srbija - 'Infrastruktur železnice Srbije' ad, Belgrade, Nemanjina Street, is rejected as incomplete. 6, for the issuance of a decision approving the use of the completed works on the construction of a station building with a parking lot with 88 parking spaces, storey P, gross floor area of the station building is 5650.00m2, net area 5166,18 m2, with covered exits from platform I and platform VI, total BRGP 592.64m2 on cadastral plot no. 2855/111 KO Savski venac, municipality of Savski venac, on the territory of the city of Belgrade, within the complex of the railway station 'Belgrade centar' in Belgrade", says the decision of the Ministry of Construction, Transport and Infrastructure.
A video published by "Eco straža" appeared on Instagram, showing that at the Prokop station one of the conveyor belts is resting on a pile of tiles over a screw that is not attached to anything. Pools and mud on the floor, and water dripping from the ceiling are common images after bad weather. Tapes for the danger of collapsing the ceiling are not unknown at this station either.
By the way, the President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, opened the Prokop station twice - once as Prime Minister in 2016 and seven years later as President of the State. He then emphasized that a total of 81,2 million euros were invested in Prokop and the railway station, together with 15 million euros invested in the station building.
"I am grateful to the people who made an immeasurable contribution to the idea of creating Prokop and what we created, and we made important and courageous decisions that pushed Serbia forward," said Vučić on that occasion.
What is hidden behind his sentences that "no one builds more than us" (progressives)? Political scientist Dejan Bursać explains for "Vreme" that the SNS party at one point in its development realized that the most important story with which they could raise the rating of Aleksandar Vučić was the one about economic development.
"They are the party that came to power on a wave of huge dissatisfaction that a large segment of the population in Serbia felt, first of all, after the transition, and then the great economic crisis that hit Serbia in 2009, 2010, 2011, when unemployment also jumped. to about 25 percent", says Bursać.
He adds that when you look at every survey in the last 10 or 12 years, you can see that people are most concerned about topics such as the economy, employment, investments and the like. The Serbian Progressive Party understood that, and the symbol of that development is precisely that construction because, according to our interlocutor, that is the easiest way to signal to the voters that Serbia is developing economically.
"Here are the railways, we will come to open the railway. Here is the train station, we will come to open it. Here is the airport, highway, factories and the like. I don't think there has been a guest appearance by Aleksandar Vučić on any television in the last ten years without him listing infrastructure projects, drawing those maps and the like. All this is, in fact, a signal to the voters: 'Serbia is developing with me', and the symbol of that is the cult of construction, as one of my colleagues called it," Bursać points out.
MEANING OF USE LICENSE
In the atmosphere of general fear after the tragedy in Novi Sad, additionally strengthened by the information that even the Prokop Railway Station does not have a use permit, the question arises as to how the public knows which facilities are not safe because they do not have all the necessary documents for use.
Stojan Čolakov from the Chamber of Commerce of the Construction Industry tells "Vreme" that it is difficult for us to know this because the investor and the bodies that carry out the technical acceptance know it, and these are mostly independent bodies.
"As members of the Chamber, we do not know which documents have been issued and which have not. Essentially, a large number of facilities in Serbia enter the period of use with their technical acceptance. It is essentially finished then. All technical solutions have been completed, as well as technical reception, so the facility is being used", explains Čolakov.
The use permit is important, he says, because sometimes something that shouldn't be forgotten due to speed: "The facility is completed at the moment when all the facilities have been examined, with all the necessary documents, and then the trial period of use can be entered, and you the periods until obtaining a use permit must not be extremely long."
Čolakov explains that what was before, from 2000 to 2012, was a system in which investment programs started from financing the European Investment Bank or the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development: "Today, the state opted for a commercial arrangement with a creditor state, so we lost that tender process. From there, the main contractor is determined. It is as inaccessible to you as it is to us. In the second step, we hear how subcontractors are chosen. We, as the Chamber, also had objections. First, from 2014 - that is, from the first contract with the Azerbaijanis - and then in 2015, 2016, we proposed how to implement that process in the most correct way, all with the desire and idea of market regulation. What we still believe today is that our market is unorganized and these are the main reasons for all these misfortunes", indicates Čolakov.
He adds that there are other problems - the qualifications of the workforce, short deadlines, etc. are not taken into account.
"You have companies with references that don't get work, and some newly created ones get it," concludes Čolakov. "It was like that in the period from 2000 to 2012, and now everything is only more intense. You have practically the same conditions for companies that appear and live for several years and for those with references. However, those firms are not getting jobs for certain reasons."
THE CONSEQUENCES OF CORRUPTION AND SHADY AGREEMENTS
The cult of construction is what the Serbian Progressive Party has built its image on for more than 10 years. "The Belgrade-Novi Sad railway was one of the greatest symbols of that because it connected the two largest cities, with all the stories of modernity it brings," says Bursać. "And then a part of that infrastructure falls apart, kills people, and you see that it is the result of corruption, fraudsters, incompetence, some kind of murky agreements on construction and the like. Now the progressives are in the problem of how people will understand their next projects, i.e. - whether they will still be able to maintain this cult of construction and indirectly everything that comes with it."
Bursać adds that the main example of the aforementioned is the high-speed railway from Novi Sad to Subotica, the opening of which was announced by the end of November (November 24).
"I don't believe that SNS will open it now, because where will that train go?", notes Bursać.
After all this, sad and angry citizens took to the streets. When you look at all the tragedies under this government, concern for lives is increasing, and criminal responsibilities are nowhere to be found. But the opposition is still walking.
"It has become a bit tiring for me to watch the opposition, which has been making the same mistakes for 10 years. The progressives have their own 'playbook' they already play by and are absolutely predictable. All that happened after the protest in Novi Sad - the tightening, escalation, rhetoric and defensiveness of the SNS could literally have been planned even before it happened. It is not clear to me how someone in the opposition did not sit down and draw, then come up with answers", concludes Bursać.
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The return of radical violence subscribeThe archive of the weekly Vreme includes all our digital editions, since the very beginning of our work. All issues can be downloaded in PDF format, by purchasing the digital edition, or you can read all available texts from the selected issue.
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