Highway (Beta/Milan Obradovic)
The Serbian government has passed a special law to accelerate the construction of important infrastructure projects, such as the subway and highways, shorten time for solving property and legal relations and avoid potential penalties for not drawing money from banks, the Nova Ekonomija magazine reports.
The bill on special procedures for the implementation of projects of construction and reconstruction of infrastructure structures of special importance to the Republic of Serbia, which is currently in parliamentary procedure, states that based on experience so far in the implementation of these projects the conclusion was reached that a lot of time in the implementation process is spent on solving property and legal relations prior to issuing the necessary permits, which is why the works are often behind schedule.
One of the objectives is to expedite the public procurement procedure. The bill envisages that, in the event of urgency and endangerment of project implementation, the government may decide to exempt a project or specific phases thereof from the regulations dealing with the public procurement procedure and let a special procedure for the selection of a strategic partner be applied to them instead.
The strategic partner selection procedure is carried out by a working group that is formed by the Serbian government.
The bill's justification recalls that the Ministry of Construction, Transportation and Infrastructure has in its work plan and budget for 2020 (with a plan for 2021 and 2022 as well) foreseen the launch of projects from the new investment cycle, which are estimated at roughly EUR5 billion of investment in infrastructure projects (roads, railway, subway, water infrastructure), says Nova Ekonomija.
In addition to the construction of new state roads, reconstruction and rehabilitation of public roads up to 5,000 kilometers in length, as well as reconstruction and rehabilitation of the public railway infrastructure are also planned.
The magazine adds that the adoption of a special law for the realization of a particular project is not an isolated case in Serbian legislation, as special laws have already been passed for the implementation of the Belgrade Waterfront project.
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