Still without the promised ferries, crowds on the Bokeh roads

Although the 45-day deadline left to him by the Government on February 9, when it obliged him to terminate the contract with the previous operator of the ferry line in Boka Kotorska and to take over the operation of liner maritime traffic on the route Kamenari-Lepetane, has long since expired, "Morsko dobro" has not even come close to establishing the quality of service on that line that was provided to service users by the former operator, the private company "Pomorski sabrojc" from Herceg Novi.

The summer tourist season has practically started since the Catholic Easter, and the crowds at the truce are more and more noticeable, however, there is no adequate service on the line across the Verige strait, because instead of the six ferries that the former operator had, since March 13, only two boats have been plying - a small ferry." Vasilije" from 1978, which "Morsko dobro" rented for a symbolic one euro per month from the hydro-construction company "Briv Construction" from Kotor, which can accommodate up to 20 passenger cars, and the even older ferry "30 August" from 1970, which "Morsko dobro" bought 570.000 passenger vehicles in Croatia for as much as 41 euros in a controversial "public procurement by negotiation process without prior publication of a call for tenders" deal.

Although both of these ferries have a total capacity of only 61 vehicles, as their official papers confirm, the president of the Management Board of "Morsko dobr" Blazo Radjenovic and executive director of that state-owned company Mladen Mikijelj in all their public and official appearances to the Government, they claim that "Vasilije" and "August 30" have a capacity of 80 vehicles.

"Our new three ferries will be of high quality, they will offer a service with a much higher capacity than was the case with the previous fleet that operated on this line," said Radjenović, guest on TV Vijesti, and added that it will be almost twice as much as the total the capacity of the "Marine Transport" fleet, which could accommodate 180 cars.

However, what has been happening in Boka since February 18, when "Marine Transport", with which "Morsko dobro" unilaterally terminated the contract, stopped operating on the Kamenari-Lepetane line, is far from the needs of the citizens, as shown by all more frequent columns that form at the docks and highways in Lepetani and Kameneri where vehicles waiting to be transported accumulate.

A large number of trucks and buses, which were previously transported by ferries, now give up the boat crossing and take a detour around the bay, which in Kotor is already creating unbearable crowds and traffic jams with kilometer long lines. Because of this, the dissatisfaction of the residents of Boka, the growing number of tourists, but also the local authorities in Tivat, Herceg Novi and Kotor, which are now increasingly criticizing and expressing reservations about the way "Morsko dobro" performs ferry transport in Boka, is growing.

President of the Municipality of Tivat Željko Komnenović (NP) thus said that "if we do not now improve the offer and service that the former operator 'Maritime Transport' had, then we have not done anything with this change" and that he constantly repeats this to people from the management of Morski Dobr. Responding to the calls of the opposition, which criticized him at the last session of the Municipal Assembly for supporting all of Morski Dobr's moves with ferries, no matter how bad they were, Komnenović said that he hopes that Morski is well aware that if there are no ferries, there is nothing. neither since the tourist season in Boka, nor in most of the Montenegrin coast.

The "30. August" ferry, which has only two crews, runs in two shifts from 6 am to 22 pm, while only "Vasilije" operates at night without a precise timetable.

Although the managers of Morski Dobr and the leaders of the Government have publicly promised on several occasions that the company will acquire at least five ships by the middle of April, this has not happened yet. Ten days ago, at a telephone session, the government accepted the information from "Morski Dobr" about the need to urgently purchase three more ferries and gave that company permission to buy the ships again through the controversial "negotiation procedure without prior publication of the call for tenders", as it also bought on "August 30 ", whose purchase is being investigated by the Special State Prosecutor's Office.

In a guest appearance on TV Vijesta on April 11, Rađenović pointed out that "they will work to have new ferries on this line until May 1", but that he is not sure how long all the procedures will take, so it is more realistic that the three ships for which they have received approval Government, buy and bring to Boka within about a month. However, an additional problem is that "August 30" will soon have to be pulled from the line again for several days due to a technical inspection, as it received only a temporary seaworthiness certificate that is valid until May 21.