Although certain media announced, citing the sources from the Belgrade-based Office of the European Commission, that the financial agreement on construction of new bridge in the location of the Žeželj bridge would be signed within next few days, people in the Provincial Fund for Capital Investments and the City Development Institute were unable to confirm that for newspaper Dnevnik.
The Fund's spokesperson Nebojša Malenković says that the next steps are being waited after tripartite meetings were held between the representatives of the European Commission, the Capital Investments Fund and Novi Sad, the main topic at which was the participation in the project's funding.
- The Fund is obliged to provide 20m EUR, the city of Novi Sad should give 10m EUR, while the European Commission is to participate with 30m EUR.
However, that should not be the subject of special contracts, and we still don't know when they will be signed – said Malenković and added that it was necessary to specify when and how much each side in that business would invest.
People in the City Development Institute confirmed that 300m RSD had been provided in 2010 for the new bridge in the location of former Žeželj bridge and that there was possibility for that amount to be changed if agreed so. The city announced earlier that the money would be provided through the loans of the European Investment Banks and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
However, Dnevnik did not manage yesterday (March 1st, 2010) to get the confirmation, either from the Belgrade-based Office of the European Commission or the city administration, of whether some progress is made in defining financial obligations.
Once the financial agreement is signed, the conditions will be created for announcement of the international open competition for construction of the bridge according to the project elaborated by Italian company Italferr. The tendering procedure should last for six months, while the construction of bridge itself should take four years. The new bridge should be 470 meters long and nearly 25 meters wide. It will have pedestrian and bike paths, the room for two railway gages and two lanes for road traffic.
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