Extensive preparations, optimism, but also unfinished municipal projects mark the last month before the start of the winter tourist season in Kolašin.
The local Tourist Organization (TO) announces numerous events, and the state Ski Center Kolašin 1600 announces a new lift. The opening of the first hotel within the Kolašin 1600 Mountain Center is also expected.
Snow is also expected, because the amount of precipitation will again greatly depend on when and how many tourists will arrive in Kolašin.
TO Director Zorica Milašinović tells "Vijesti" that preparations for the winter season began immediately after the end of summer. He announces the organization of the traditional New Year's bazaar on Trg boraca, and the stands will once again offer a wide range of home-made crafts and organic products.
"In accordance with the weather conditions, the organization of a music and entertainment program is planned, in order to complete the holiday magic. We will participate in the organization of the third Winter Art guitar festival, where famous artists and young talented guitarists will perform", she announces.
Milašinović explains that this season's novelty is the Kolašin SkySnow race on beaten ski tracks, which will be organized on February 24 at the Ski Center and which, she says, represents a real adventure for all snow lovers.
TO will also support the organization of the Bjelasic and Sinjavin winter marathon this year.
Just so the snow won't be too late
Kolašin's winter offer was presented at the International Tourism Fair in Paris, and Milašinović says that a large number of tour operators have shown interest. TO will also participate in the Tourism Fair in Novi Sad, which starts at the end of November.
"We have an announcement that a Swiss hotel will open this season at Kolasin 1600, but not at full capacity. This winter we expect the most domestic guests, tourists from the region and Albania. Expectations for the winter tourist season are directly related to snowfall. This will determine the start and success of the season. I hope that the snow will not be late like last year", says the director of TO.
Preparations at the Kolašin 1600 Ski Center are in the final stage, Bojan Medenica, the manager of that ski resort, claims for "Vijesti".
He says, the overhaul of the cable cars, the servicing of the ski lifts, the maintenance of the trails...
"We are working on the installation of an elevator that will follow track number 1. It is, by the way, the most commercial track, categorized as 'blue'. We expect the elevator to be operational around December 20. Also, we expect enough snow and record attendance. Last year we had about 60 skiing days, and this year I hope there will be 90", says Medenica.
Excavated street, work is also being done on the Memorial Home
What neither the TO nor the Ski Resort can influence is the delay in infrastructure works in the city. Two more were added to the numerous private construction sites last summer, which are financed from the capital budget - the reconstruction of the hydrotechnical infrastructure in Boška Rašovića Street and the renovation of the Memorial Home. The deadlines on those two construction sites were repeatedly missed. Although the local administration previously announced that "1 percent of the works will be completed by November 95" in Boško Rašovića Street, according to the current situation on the ground, this will not happen until the beginning of December either.
This time, the Municipality of "Vijestima" did not answer the questions when they expect that one of the longest traffic roads in Kolašin and one of the connections of the center with the upper part of the city, i.e. the road to the ski resorts, will be completed. Allegedly, as they nominally said, they are waiting for that data from the supervisory service.
The street was dug up once again in recent days, and this time, according to unofficial information, a telecommunications cable is being laid.
The work, which started at the end of May, has been hindered by rain in recent weeks, and the construction site has been evident for the past few months with a small number of workers and machinery.
The original deadline for the completion of the works, according to the contract, was 120 days, that is, October 3. As the Municipality said earlier, "due to the difficult conditions of the works, the fact is that the deadlines had to be postponed".
"The delay in the execution of the works is a direct consequence of bad weather conditions at the very beginning of the works, difficult working conditions, excavation at depths of more than four meters, in materials that belong to the worse rock category, so during the execution of the works there were frequent collapses", some for reasons that, according to the supervision, led to the delay, announced in mid-October from the office of the then President of the Municipality, Vladimir Martinović.
They also reminded that there was a break during the MOSI 2023 event.
According to the supervisory service, the contractor also had challenges due to old asbestos water pipes. Allegedly, care should have been taken to ensure that no damage occurs during excavation near the pipe, and thus no interruption in the water supply. As before, when similar works were carried out on city roads, difficulties were created, as they claim, by a large number of installations that are not in the cadastre of installations.
The works are performed by "Indel Inženjering" doo Podgorica.
The implementation of that project, as explained earlier, will solve the problem of stormwater spillage in the part of the settlement that gravitates to that road, as well as the problem of undeveloped fecal sewage. Also, the project includes a solution to the problem of wastewater in the so-called refugee settlement, which will finally be connected to the newly constructed sewage network.
The execution of works in the past months complicated the traffic regime in the city, especially during the summer tourist season. That and occasionally parts of Milivoja Bulatovića Street were closed to traffic.
For the completion of the work on the Memorial Home, as was said earlier, a sufficient number of sunny days are awaited. In the meantime, it was announced that the adaptation of one of the symbols of Kolašin will cost around 640.000 euros, i.e. 100.000 more than originally planned...
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