The government has spent the entire budget of 11 million euros it allocated last year for the expropriation of private property in the contact zone of Tivat Airport, which is designated by spatial planning documentation for the expansion of that airport, without fully completing the process.
To complete the expropriation that, according to the current State Study of the "Tivat Airport" location, is planned for the expansion of the airport, additional money needs to be provided, which is why the invitation of the owners of these properties to the Cadastre and State Property Administration to conduct the expropriation procedure has currently been suspended.
This was confirmed by "Vijesti" from the Ministry of Transport, which emphasized that about two million euros are needed to complete the entire expropriation process.
"In accordance with the Government's conclusion of December 30, 2024, the Ministry of Finance paid 11 million euros from the current budget reserve into the expropriation account of the Ministry of Spatial Planning, Urbanism and State Property. After that, the Ministry of Transport sent a proposal to the Real Estate Administration in Tivat for the expropriation of real estate in the scope of the second phase of the airport. Based on these funds, in the cadastral municipality (KO) Mrčevac, the proposal includes all seven plots owned by individuals and companies, while the remaining 61 plots are owned by the state and the Municipality of Tivat. When it comes to KO Đuraševići, the proposal includes 86 cadastral plots out of a total of 127 that are privately or owned by companies. The procedure for these 11 million euros is in the final stage, a public hearing has been conducted, and for parties that agreed with the price, solutions have been prepared for the payment of compensation by the Ministry of Spatial Planning," the Ministry of Transport said.
In June last year, the Government adopted information on the start of the expropriation of real estate within the framework of Phase II of the development of Tivat Airport in the locations of the cadastral municipalities of Đuraševići and Mrčevac. The Information states that as part of preparations for the implementation of the concession of Montenegrin airports, property and legal issues over real estate intended for the expansion and modernization of Tivat Airport should be resolved so that they are state-owned and as such could eventually be transferred to a future concessionaire. These are 143 plots, the total area of which is over 50 hectares.
Some owners are waiting for a call from the Real Estate Administration
"Funds in the amount of 11 million euros have been provided to resolve property and legal relations, which creates conditions for further modernization and expansion of the airport," the Government announced at the time.
The Ministry of Transport confirmed that some of the owners of the properties that are to be expropriated have not yet been invited by the Tivat cadastre to comment on the expropriation process. This is the case with two cadastral plots in the Đuraševići municipality, whose owners contacted "Vijesti" and stated that they were surprised that no one from the Cadastre and State Property Administration had yet invited them to comment on the expropriation compensation that the state should offer them.
"The plots in the Đuraševići administrative district were not included in the original proposal sent to the Real Estate Administration, and therefore the owners were not invited to a public hearing. These plots will be part of the new proposal for initiating the expropriation procedure, after the remaining amount of money is provided in accordance with the new assessment of the value of the immovable property," the Ministry of Transport confirmed.
"Vijesti" has been contacted in recent days by several property owners who said that, although their property is "in the heart of the planned airport expansion zone", no one has yet called them from the Cadastre and State Property Administration, nor have they been offered fair compensation for the properties that the state intends to take from them, and they have not received any notifications or information about the status of the expropriation procedure regarding these properties.
"We learned that many other owners were summoned, compensation was determined for their real estate, and they were ultimately paid. We then contacted the cadastre to obtain clarification, and the answer was that the Government, or rather the Ministry of Transport, had not provided the total necessary funds for this expropriation," some of the natives of Tivat and Krtol, whose ancestral home in the field around the airport will be expropriated, told "Vijesti".
According to them, some of the locals whose property has since been seized have received compensation for it "at a rather ridiculous price, starting from 25 euros per square meter and up."
When asked when the expropriation of all plots planned for the airport expansion can be expected to be completed and how much it will cost the state in total, the Ministry of Transport did not provide a precise answer, emphasizing that it depends on securing additional funds to pay the current private owners of the property.
"According to the updated report of the Valuation Commission dated June 9, 2025, the total value of real estate owned by natural and legal persons subject to expropriation for the second phase is 12.928.738 euros. Of this amount, almost 12,7 million euros applies to the Đuraševići administrative district, while around 238 thousand euros applies to the Mrčevac administrative district. As the Government previously provided 11 million euros, it is necessary to provide an additional 1.982.783 euros for the complete completion of the procedure," the Ministry of Transport said.
They are confiscating private land, neglecting state land.
And while it is engaged in the seizure of private property on the stretches north, west and south of the current airport complex, the state is doing nothing to annex to Tivat Airport its own several tens of thousands of square meters of land, over which less than two kilometers of the former Adriatic Highway passes, parallel to the airport runway, and which became a "dead end" after the construction of the new Tivat - Jaz bus terminal.
Namely, the boulevard route has been moved a few dozen meters east of this section of the highway, to part of the plots of the former Montepranzo agricultural estate. Almost four years ago, the state seized four plots of land with a total area of 67.083 square meters from Montepranzo for the construction of the boulevard next to the Tivat airport, and for this, it paid the company compensation in the total amount of 2.079.053 euros, or 31 euros per square meter.
However, the state has so far taken no action to annex several tens of thousands of square meters of its own land between the new boulevard and the current Tivat airport complex to the airport complex. This is completely incomprehensible, as this is state property that would be very useful to the Tivat airport, which operates with great spatial constraints.
According to unofficial information from "Vijesti", the management of the Airport of Montenegro, headed by the director To Rok Tolić This was discussed last year with the then Minister of Transport. Maja Vukicevic which showed understanding for the ACG initiative to annex this land to the airport complex, but in the meantime the state has not done anything concrete about it.
When asked why this is so, the Ministry of Transport, which is currently headed by the Minister of Maritime Affairs as acting head, Filip Raduklović (PES), claim that allegedly, "so far, no initiative has been expressed to attach the aforementioned area to the airport complex."
"If ACG expresses a need for that section in terms of development capacities, a procedure will be carried out in accordance with applicable regulations to connect that state-owned area to the airport," the ministry said.
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