Employees and students of the "Mrkojevići" Elementary School in the Bar settlement of Pečurice will start this school year without a sports hall that was supposed to be built by March of this year at the latest, and the reason for this remains unknown to the citizens and "Vijestma".
The Ministry of Education, Science and Innovation has not officially responded to the reason for such a delay, but "Vijesti" has learned unofficially that it is a problem in the main project.
The laying of the foundation stone in early March last year marked the beginning of construction work on the hall. The project, which has been in the works for decades, is worth 1,2 million euros and was scheduled to be completed between this year and March 2025.
Although the mayor of Bar Municipality Dušan Raičević, Minister of Education, Science and Innovation Anđela Jakšić Stojanović and representative of the Capital Projects Administration Maja Delic then officially announced the start of the works, they have not yet been completed even half a year after the scheduled deadline.
When the students and staff of the "Mrkojevići" Elementary School can expect the completion or continuation of the works, and what is the new deadline for putting the hall into operation, remains an open question, since the Bar administration and the Ministry of Education, Science and Innovation have not sent answers to the questions of "Vijesti".
The director of that educational institution Arslan Šabotić He told "Vijesti" that the school was not involved in decision-making or the execution of work on the sports hall, so they have no official information about the dynamics of the project.
"For accurate information, it is best to contact the Ministry of Education, Science and Innovation and the Municipality of Bar, which are the project leaders. We hope that the hall will be completed soon, because it is of great importance for students and the community," concluded Šabotić.
The contractor for this project is DOO “Kalamper” from Bar, and the professional supervision will be carried out by the company “Civil Engineer” from Podgorica. The investor is the Elementary School “Mrkojevići”.
"Vijesti" learned from a source familiar with the process of implementing this investment that there was a problem in the main project, so the company responsible for supervision requested changes. According to information from the same sources, this has prolonged the process, and the works should continue this September.
The sports hall, whose construction has been delayed for half a year, will have an area of about 1.800 square meters.
Minister Jakšić Stojanović said in front of the school in March last year that this was a large and significant project not only for Pečurice, but for the entire municipality and Montenegro, and that it had been talked about for a very long time.
"We hope that with this project we are starting one of the largest and most significant investment cycles when it comes to educational infrastructure in Bar," she said.
The first man of the Bar Dušan Raičević then stated that they were proud of the start of the project, which was defined as a joint project in 2019 in cooperation with the municipality, the Ministry of Education, and the Association of Bar emigrants from Chicago.
"This is the only elementary school in the Bar municipality that did not have a gym, but I am sure that within a year it will have a state-of-the-art facility where the students of this school, as well as many locals, will be able to use the space adequately," Raičević announced last year.
Bonus video:
