Waterfront project to be completed "in 8 to 10 years"

Waterfront project to be completed "in 8 to 10 years"

The master plan for the project, referred to also as "Belgrade on Water" and "City on Water", was presented on Friday.

"The deadline is, as of today, eight to ten years for all four phases and the most important thing is to get started. You cannot start working a project of this size immediately, and (do) everything," he was quoted as saying, and adding that one of the limiting factors was the completion of the railway station Prokop.

Mali said this was expected by the end of 2016, and that the relocation of the railway station "opens up space for the second and third phase."

Asked whether "a construction contract" was signed, the mayor said this was not done yet, adding that "the plan was to begin the first phase of the project in the spring."

"At the same time we are working on preparing the paperwork and documentation. Do not expect the contract to build before the end of the year, simply because we do not have all the paperwork ready," he said, adding that the authorities "want to completely change the way things were done before."

This means that "when work is done, it is done with all the necessary documentation and paperwork, rather than incur additional costs later," he explained.

Addressing the criticism voiced some architects that the project would "impair the appearance of the city," while a planned tower would "affect the course of the Sava River," Mali said that a model currently on display at the Belgrade Cooperative (Beogradska Zadruga) building was the subject of "all possible analyses."

"Go ahead and analyze, I have no problem with that. I've heard some criticism that domestic architecture firms are not involved in the project, which is partly true. The model is only a plan of what Belgrade on water should look like, and each building will be the result of work of local architecture firms," said Mali, stressing that "there are a lot of projects within the framework of Belgrade Waterfront, so there will be work for everyone."