New lighthouse cannot be built in Baošići: "Customs" violated the Law on Navigation Safety and destroyed the waterway in Boka

The Maritime Safety Administration (MSA) has rejected as unfounded the request of the Podgorica-based company "Carina" to issue guidelines for the installation of a navigation safety facility - a lighthouse at the newly built beach in Baošići. They have also announced that they will take all legal measures against "Carina" for violating the Law on Navigation Safety and destroying the waterway in Boka Bay.

This is about the controversial filling of 14.500 square meters of the sea in Baošići, on cadastral plots and in front of plots 771, 772, 773/1 and 774, where the company "Carine" has, in the past two months, under the pretext of building an "investment beach" for its large hotel they are building nearby, committed enormous devastation of the area and filled the sea with earth, stones and sand to a depth of as much as nine meters.

Due to this filling of the coast, as well as the construction of the hotel beyond the dimensions allowed by the issued building permit, the owner of the company, a businessman from Podgorica Cedomir Popovic, in the meantime he was arrested, and the Prime Minister Milojko Spajic He promised that the Government would terminate this and all other contracts for the construction of investment resorts on the Montenegrin coast.

The state has not yet done so, although Spajić said that the sea filling in Baošići must be stopped urgently, as it has a very negative impact on preserving the status of part of the Bay of Kotor on the list of world natural and cultural heritage under the patronage of UNESCO.

The Administration for the Protection of Cultural Heritage refused to issue the company "Carine" with a conservation permit for such a project of filling and devastation of the coast and ordered the company to immediately stop the works in Baošići and return the coast to its original state, to which "Carine", as well as other competent state authorities, have so far ignored. The company completely buried the former main local tavern and the old stone pier in Baošići, causing the terrestrial navigation mark and coastal maritime light - lighthouse to completely lose their function, while the coastline was damaged and changed to such an extent that all maritime charts for that part of Boka Bay became outdated and inaccurate.

The Urban and Construction Inspection of the Ministry of Spatial Planning, Urbanism and State Property closed the construction site of the "Carine" hotel in Baošići on March 20, after the identified irregularities were not fully eliminated, the department announced in response to a request from the Protector of Property and Legal Interests of Montenegro. Bojana Ćirović.

Popović's company, meanwhile, through its legal representative - the law firm Durutović, Vuksanović and Kraljević from Podgorica, submitted a request to the Maritime Safety Administration on March 3rd for the issuance of guidelines for the installation of a new lighthouse on the newly built large embankment. In doing so, they referred to Article 6 of the Law on Navigation Safety, which, among other things, defines that "navigation safety facilities that mark facilities, assets or other interventions at sea or on the coast that represent permanent or temporary obstacles to the waterway, are installed by the investor, owner or user of that facility with the consent of the administrative body."

UPS, headed by acting director Nebojsa Kaljević, however, according to unofficial information from "Vijesti", it rejected that request as unfounded. UPS announced that it would "take all necessary legal measures in the further procedure in accordance with its jurisdiction and in cooperation with other state authorities" against the company "Carine", as the investor of the disputed sea embankment in Baošići, in order to determine the damage suffered by the state due to the fact that "Carine" relocated the existing maritime signalization facility and endangered the waterway in that part of the Baošići waters.

On this occasion, UPS also addressed the institution of the Protector of Property and Legal Interests of the State, demanding that this body "initiate the procedure for protecting things and assets of general interest - in this case, the coastal lighthouse, as well as the endangered and buried waterway and coastline, in which case the extent of the damage can only be determined through serious multi-sectoral and maritime expertise."

On February 24, the Navigation Safety Inspection of the Port of Kotor officially informed UPS that in Baošići there had been a large-scale silting of the sea in a zone of at least 35 meters from the previous coastline, and that these works had put the navigation safety facility, the coastal maritime light marked PS 747.5, "out of the function of ensuring navigation safety."

In a letter to the institution of the Protector of Property and Legal Interests of the State, UPS stated that, after receiving notification from the navigation safety inspector, the captain Grujica Dudić, and visited the disputed location herself, and that she immediately acted in accordance with the Law on Navigation Safety, broadcasting a radio announcement for maritime traffic, prohibiting navigation on that part of the waterway and warning maritime traffic participants of the danger and non-functionality of the coastal maritime light in Baošići.

Ćirović also informed UPS that, according to their knowledge, there was no consent for the execution of hydro-construction works and the possible installation of a new lighthouse in Baošići, i.e. that "it is evident that the contractor, regardless of the construction permit to which it refers, carried out hydro-construction works on the waterway, by submerging and filling in materials, without the supervision of an authorized person, i.e. without the consent of the Ministry of Maritime Affairs, as provided for in Article 13, paragraph 1 of the Law on Maritime Navigation Safety", which was also stated in the minutes drawn up by the Navigation Safety Inspection.

They warned that the current regulations stipulate that the Ministry of Maritime Affairs must participate in determining the conditions for interventions in the coastal area, internal sea waters and territorial sea in the process of adopting spatial planning documents and acts. Therefore, the UPS emphasizes, "the bearer of spatial planning was obliged to promptly notify the Ministry of Maritime Affairs of the adoption of an act or document in order to obtain approval and special conditions related to navigation safety, in order to prepare a maritime study that would, among other things, define the more detailed elements of the impact on navigation safety, and therefore traffic and navigational characteristics and navigation safety facilities."

The building permit for the devastation of the sea and coast in Baošići “Carine” was issued on January 13 by the Secretariat for Urban Planning of the Municipality of Herceg Novi, although in no valid spatial planning document that treats this part of the Novi coast is there a planning basis for such a drastic intervention in space and filling the sea on a scale larger than the area of ​​two football stadiums. Despite this, the Minister of Spatial Planning, Urban Planning and State Property Slaven Radunović announced at the session of the National Commission for UNESCO on February 20 that he had asked the "relevant inspection to check the building permit", and that it had been "determined that it was correct".

A little over a month later, on March 23, police arrested the owner of the Customs company, Čed Popović, and the Secretary for Urban Planning and Construction Inspection of the Municipality of Herceg Novi. Vladislav Velaš, due to suspicion of construction without the necessary documentation, i.e. an illegal construction permit.