The company "Maritime Traffic" and the Public Company for the Management of Maritime Resources should reach an agreement on the purchase of six private company ferries that are now parked at the Adriartic 42 shipyard in Bijela, "Vijesti" learned from a source from the Government.
Sea good officially took over on February 18 the management of the only ferry line in the state of Kamenari - Lepetane, which has been bringing millions of revenues to the private company since 2004.
"Until negotiations between the company owned by the brothers Dejana i Duška Bana and the management of the state-owned enterprise came through the mediation of the Minister of Economic Development, Goran Đurović, and the "Caterers of Montenegro" association, through whom the Ban brothers were the first to ask for talks. The initial step for the purchase of the fleet of "Marine Transport" was the condition that the company applied for a tender for the lease of one ferry, which was announced by Morsko do on April 28 and which was concluded yesterday. A private company has submitted an offer for this tender", said the source of "Vijesti", adding that it is about the ferry "Igalo" with a capacity of 30 vehicles.
The estimated value of this public procurement is 24.999 euros. This ferry would be leased for 28 days, which is indicated in the public auction, and during that period, negotiations should be completed regarding the purchase of the remaining ferries for the needs of the Maritime Administration, whose fleet now includes the ferries "Vasilije" with a capacity of 20 vehicles and "Thirdesti August" with a capacity of 50 vehicles. The "Vijesti" source said that today at 11 a.m. the ferry "Igalo" will be handed over and if everything goes well, it will be put into traffic immediately.
"Morsko dobro successfully completed negotiations in Greece and Turkey, whose representatives, who have ferries that match the characteristics of our Bay of Kotor, applied to the Montenegrin public procurement system. Competent state institutions for ship registration and experts for ship inspection have positively evaluated potential ships that can be purchased by Morsko dobro. The shortlist included three ships valued at around 8,5 million euros. One of the inspected ships called "Telemon", with a capacity of 90 vehicles, received the best rating. Aware of the fact that the state-owned company is at the end of these negotiations, but also in order to avoid that their six ferries remain unemployed, they asked for negotiations from the "Marine Transport", said the source of "Vijesti", who stated that the ferries are owned by a private company from Lepetan. estimated at around 5,5 million euros.
The "Vijesti" source said that today at 11 a.m. the ferry "Igalo" will be handed over and if everything goes well, it will be put into traffic immediately.
The executive director of "Marine Transport" Dejan Ban officially confirmed yesterday to the newspaper "Pobjeda" that one ferry will be transferred to the state company and that this "should buy time until the final solution of the problem", and that "the ferry line Kamenari - Lepetane is a big a problem, something that is harassing the citizens of Boka and Montenegro and that everything must finally be approached responsibly".
The source of "Vijesti" explained that by purchasing six ferries from "Pomorski sabrajka" Morsko dobro would not have to buy all three ferries from abroad, but only one.
"It is important to point out that "Marine Traffic" did not appeal against the decision of the Commercial Court, which rejected this company's request to enable it to use a part of the maritime property for the operation of the ferry line without hindrance", said the "Vijesti" source.
After taking over this ferry line, "Morsko dobro" first leased the small ferry "Vasilije" from the Kotor company "Briv Construction" at a price of one euro per month, after which it bought the ferry "Prizna" ("Thirdty of August") in Croatia for about 570 thousand euros. The procurement of the ferry in Croatia is being investigated by the Special State Prosecutor's Office, while the public procurement inspection found that the legal procedure was followed in this case. "Vijesti" has access to this record, to which Morsko dobro had no objections.
The state-owned company has not yet started charging tickets on the ferry line for which the price list was recently adopted and approved by the Government. At that Government session, the Minister of Ecology, Spatial Planning and Urbanism, Ana Novaković-Đurović, said that charging will begin when "at least one more ferry" is introduced into traffic.
Lovćen Insurance submitted a bid for the public procurement of the state-owned company for the insurance of vehicles that are transported by ferries against damage that they could suffer for various reasons while they are on the ship for "Vasilija" and "Thirdest Agust".
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