"Ski Resorts of Montenegro" has announced a new tender worth 145.200 euros for the urgent rehabilitation and stabilization of the soil near the "K7" cable car pole at the state ski resort "Kolašin 1600", which was damaged last year during works on private plots of the neighboring company "Ski resort Kolašin 1450", owned by Zoran Ćoć Bećirović.
A previous attempt to find a contractor for the job collapsed in mid-December after the first tender was cancelled because none of the interested companies submitted a valid bid. This tender ran from November 19 to December 5.
The new one was announced on December 24th and will last until January 12th, while the selected contractor will have to complete the renovation within at least 15 days or a maximum of one month - which means that the cable car connecting the state and private ski resort will not operate during the peak winter tourist season.
In the event that the project is awarded to a contractor, he will have to provide a guarantee for the works for at least two years, and for equipment and materials for at least one year.
The winter tourist season at the Kolašin 1600 ski center officially opened on December 12, without snow, while half of the ski slopes are not available because the cable car, which cost nine million euros to build, has not been operating since spring 2024. The six-seater cable car has a capacity of 2.600 skiers per hour and began operating in February 2022, but has not been operating for more than a year and a half since the damage. Bećirović has not repaired the damage since then, so the government decided in November to react and invest 150.000 euros in repairing the cable car.
The government emphasized in the information that assistance for the rehabilitation of the cable car is not a state grant, as it relates to the construction and maintenance of sports infrastructure, which does not affect trade between European Union members or neighboring countries.
The private “Ski-resort Kolašin 1450” announced at the end of November that they had invested nearly 400.000 euros in the repair of pole number 4 of the cable car, and they also accused “Skijališta” of lack of cooperation, negative campaigning and avoiding presenting the facts regarding the repair of the cable car to the public. They have previously claimed that the “K7” cable car was installed outside the planning document and that they are not to blame for the damage to the pole.
The Board of Directors of "Skijalište" said at the end of November that these allegations were false, and they also stated that a private company had issued a tender for this job, but that the contractor was not selected, so they suspected their intentions. They claim that they informed the Ministry of Tourism about this, asked the state to get involved and take over solving the problem, so they issued the tender themselves.
The state-owned company that manages the current and future ski centers "Kolašin 1600", "Cmiljača", "Žarski", "Jelovica", "Torine" and the "Komovi" Mountain Center has repeatedly said that they cannot operate profitably from their own revenues, the lack of artificial snowmaking and the costs of maintaining infrastructure.
Ministry of tourism Simonida Kordić said in early December that preparations for the winter tourist season were "well underway" and that climate change in recent years has made precise forecasts difficult, which is why they have devoted great attention to developing a more diverse offer, so that ski centers can function and generate income even on days when there is no heavy snowfall.
According to the 2015 National Climate Change Strategy, climate change is the biggest obstacle to the development of winter tourism in Montenegro. The state, through its decision to develop ski resorts with slopes below 1.800 meters above sea level, has ignored this strategy.
According to the document, snowfall will decrease by 25 percent by 2030, and by 50 percent thereafter, so the Strategy proposes moving ski slopes to altitudes above 1.800 meters and investing in artificial snow systems.
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